Creating Change for Complex Children and their Families

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Multi-Family Work

Jo Holmes, Amelia Oldfield and Marion Polichroniadis
Foreword by Professor Ian Goodyer

Paperback: £25.99 / $42.95

2011, 234mm x 156mm / 9.25in x 6in, 256pp
ISBN: 978-1-84310-965-5, BIC 2: JMF MBPK MMH

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The strain of caring for children struggling with severe and complex mental health needs affects the entire family. The staff at the innovative Croft Child and Family Unit have developed a unique approach of working intensively with the whole family, and encouraging them to share their experiences with other families, to instigate a complete change that will benefit all family members.

Using detailed case studies to illustrate the model, the book focuses on the needs of children with a wide range of developmental, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and explores the complicated interactions between these children, their families and their communities. The care team includes nurses, psychiatrists, doctors, family therapists and creative therapists, social workers and teachers. They examine how to integrate a range of therapeutic interventions and how to use the powerful relationships that develop between professionals and families to enable positive, lasting changes.

This book will be indispensable reading for trainees and professionals working with children with mental health problems and their families, and special needs educationalists wanting to understand the benefits of an intensive, multi-family approach to treatment for children who do not respond to standard community interventions.

Blog posts

Creating Change for Complex Children and their Families at the Croft Child and Family Unit

14 July 2011

"Through individual and group work we aim to get to know a child really well in order to identify their strengths as well as their weaknesses. We also work closely with parents and have an opportunity to see how family relationships work on a day-to-day basis. We use the information we gain from these close observations to establish a holistic, integrated understanding of all the important factors driving the child’s problems and then use this to plan interventions."

By the same authors

Author information

• Jo Holmes
• Amelia Oldfield
• Marion Polichroniadis

Subject areas

• Health, Social Work and Social Care
• Psychiatry and Psychology

Keywords

• adolescence,
• anger management,
• arts therapies,
• attachment,
• challenging behaviour,
• child development,
• child protection,
• child psychiatry,
• children,
• communication,
• community care,
• counselling,
• developmental coordination disorder,
• educational psychology,
• emotions,
• families,
• joint working,
• looked after children,
• mental health,
• nonverbal learning disabilities,
• obsessive compulsive disorder,
• parenting,
• pastoral care,
• person-centred,
• play therapy,
• relationships,
• residential care,
• self esteem,
• social care,
• social work,
• supervision,
• therapeutic communities,
• youthwork

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