What Is a Family System in Social Work

Family Services

Toni Naccarato, Katharine Briar-Lawson, Brian D. Roland

• Terminal REVIEWED: 01 May 2017
• LAST MODIFIED: 27 December 2010
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0073

Introduction

Encompassing a broad range of programs, practices, and strategies, family services address individual family unit members and include children, parents, and elders besides every bit the entire family unit organisation. Services may include resources, such equally income supports, counseling, and psychoeducational programs, every bit well equally caregiving, such as child or elderberry care. Some services are provided by social workers and allied professionals, such as marriage and family therapists, while others are provided by peers or paraprofessional staff. Family services tend to be focused on one or 2 generational supports and strategies, such as a parent and a child or an elder and an adult child caregiver. Intergenerational services that mobilize all generations to solve problems together or to receive services simultaneously are less ofttimes employed. The emergence of family unit therapy models has added to the variety in approaches to family services. Family services vary depending on whether the issue is alcohol and substance abuse, mental health, child corruption and neglect, domestic violence, delinquency, disabilities, schoolhouse performance, poverty, parent-child conflict, marital disharmonize, or caregiving stress. Whether services are covered by publicly provided funds versus private insurance also determines the type and range of supports offered. Given the vast literature and diverse fields of practice, such as addictions, juvenile delinquency, mental wellness, schools, and aging, this entry focuses many of the selections on public sector families and often those involved with the child welfare system. Diversity and the changing limerick of families add to the complexity in services and challenge practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to accost their unique needs.

Introductory Works

Family unit services in recent decades have focused on families who receive services from the public sector. Those with financial means often receive private, marital, or family therapy and may use private insurance to pay for services from private practitioners. Family preservation, including in-habitation and intensive technologies, multisystemic therapy approaches, and family grouping conferencing, are more than contempo service strategies to help public sector families. Brief strategies (chore centered, cognitive-behavioral, or psychoeducational services) and concrete services, such as income supports, are function of a long tradition in services to public sector families. Family-centered exercise is delineated in the foundational work in Hartman and Laird 1983, and family preservation is depicted in the groundbreaking work of Homebuilders (Whittaker, et al. 1990). Since the 1950s the family therapy motion, led by work such as Satir 1983, has helped build the foundation for developments in family therapy services. Some introductory works accept served every bit foundations for the advancement of public sector service strategies. For example, Reid 1985 offers an empirically based job-centered approach, while Berg 1994 is a solution-focused strategy applied oftentimes with public sector families. More community-based developments that as well focus on economic supports for families are discussed in Adams and Nelson 1995 and Schorr 1997. McGoldrick, et al. 2005 is ane of the classics in family therapy.

• Adams, Paul, and Kristine Nelson, eds. 1995. Reinventing human services: Community- and family-centered practice. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

  Economical supports, integration of community, and individual practice are presented. Strategies include the British model of customs social work, family unit preservation, comprehensive service schools, and a new model for policing. Systems changes in family-centered social services and an integrated strategy for family and economic empowerment are discussed.

• Berg, Insoo Kim. 1994. Family-based services: A solution-focused approach. New York: Westward. W. Norton.

  A solution-focused approach emphasizes competencies, strengths, and resiliencies that help empower children and families to effectively bargain with problems. Chapters focus on the application of a solution-focused model of intervention, including the initial, middle, and termination stages; defining issues; developing cooperation; setting goals; and creating contracts.

• Hartman, Ann, and Joan Laird. 1983. Family-centered social piece of work practice. New York: Gratuitous Press.

  Provides the framework and rationale for using a family-centered approach for assessing and intervening with public sector families. Drawing on an ecological approach, specific practice elements include cross-systems and cross-agency collaboration, example management, contracting, and interviewing. Ecological and intergenerational assessments along with tools to discern the structure and performance of the family unit system are presented.

• McGoldrick, Monica, Joe Giordano, and Nydia Garcia-Preto, eds. 2005. Ethnicity and family therapy. 3d ed. New York: Guilford.

  Presents road maps and paradigms for agreement families in relation to their ethnic heritage. The authors describe on historical traits and focus on the ways families retain the cultural characteristics of their heritage. The authors highlight cultural genograms, multisystemic and solution-focused approaches, artistic therapy, and intensive brief therapy.

• Reid, William J. 1985. Family problem solving. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

  Features task-centered strategies, procedures, and phases in serving families. An empirical orientation and collaborative relationships are emphasized. Issues involving advice, metacommunication, and rules for interaction are discussed. Types of interventions and tasks (for example, problem solving, communication, part playing) are specified.

• Satir, Virginia. 1983. Conjoint family therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Beliefs.

  This archetype book addresses the dysfunctional and functional family unit triangle and provides tools for assessing incongruent advice patterns. Ways to foster self-esteem, translate messages, reeducate, and create rules for interactions are addressed. The effects of stress and marital dysfunction on the family are discussed along with parental and environmental factors that assistance increase a child's self-esteem.

• Schorr, Lisbeth B. 1997. Common purpose: Strengthening families and neighborhoods to rebuild America. New York: Anchor.

  Building on her earlier book, Within Our Attain (1989), Schorr offers innovative proposals to rebuild inner cities and to address the poor and the marginalized. An array of social programs and practices are cited that bear witness promise in improving the life chances of high-risk children. The author discusses ways to scale up pilots.

• Whittaker, James Chiliad., Jill Kinney, Elizabeth M. Tracy, and Charlotte Booth, eds. 1990. Reaching high-take a chance families: Intensive family preservation in human services. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

  Introduces the Homebuilders approach to helping high-risk public sector families. Characteristics of family preservation services are discussed along with the history, development, and features of the Homebuilders model. Authoritative practices and organizational requisites are presented. Implications for innovation and replication are cited.

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