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What the family brings: gathering evidence for strengths‐based work
Author(s) -
Allison Steve,
Stacey Kathleen,
Dadds Vicki,
Roeger Leigh,
Wood Andrew,
Martin Graham
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6427.00248
Subject(s) - psychological resilience , mental health , family resilience , perspective (graphical) , family therapy , psychology , work (physics) , resilience (materials science) , social work , strengths and weaknesses , medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , social psychology , political science , mechanical engineering , physics , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , engineering , thermodynamics
Families attending child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services are often assumed to have problems in key areas such as communication, belonging/acceptance and problem‐solving. Family therapy is often directed towards addressing these difficulties. With increasing emphasis in family therapy and human services fields over the last decade on identifying and building from strengths, a different starting point has been advocated. This paper describes a large survey of the self‐reported pre‐therapy functioning of children and families using a public CAMH service (n=416). Before commencing family therapy parents identified family strengths across a range of key areas, despite the burden of caring for children with moderate to severe mental health problems. This evidence supports theoretical and clinical work that advocates a strengths perspective, and highlights how resilience framed in family (and social) rather than individual terms enables a greater appreciation of how strengths may be harnessed in therapeutic work.