Now Relatives are Engaged

One particularly interesting thing about involving more relatives that we used to is what we hear from them. Most relatives felt they had to jump through several hoops to be involved in the case of a family member. They felt intimidated, obstructed or both. Now we openly seek out relatives who can supervise visits, transport family members, provide respite or provide temporary care for children.

We’ve heard relatives say no one ever asked them in the past. Now it’s standard operation!

It’s the same with family friends. There was a standing misperception that if a family has an issue, all the friends of the family would be considered the same. I’ve heard Jody talk about a good friend of a mom that came to a family team meeting. She attended, but she sat in the corner and didn’t talk. Jody brought her in the conversation and in on the solution-focus by saying directly to her, “I’m counting on you to help her meet her requirements. Because you are so important to her, YOU can make it happen.”

We’re always paying attention during family visits to note visitors or people mentioned in conversation who may be a good addition to that informal support team. We sometimes literally use the line, “Wait a minute…who was that?” to discover additional team members.

In the end, all of this is important because it establishes trust, which makes success possible. We have to establish it with the families and with the people who touches the families. This is what we really try to model with our staff – we communicate with each other and build that trust, and we build that same trust with the families.

Addressing Barriers Quicker

We’ve seen a significant benefit in the increased family team meetings and the addition of “nontraditional” participants. In fact, we’ve seen that these additional people feel empowered when they find out that their participation can positively impact the children’s future and the parents’ success.

It’s exciting for all of us, though, to see each other discarding the silos of roles and getting back to the basics of focusing on results. When we partner together, we push up our sleeves, jump in and rely on each other to focus on solutions and not roles. Even better, we’ve gone even further and explored the potential of new roles for families’ personal network.

We’ve been able to address barriers more quickly, so it provides results more quickly. And who can’t appreciate that?

The natural advantage to bringing in more people is that we’re also building an informal support system for the family. Our work is intensive while the case is open, so you can imagine what an adjustment it can be when suddenly we’re out of the picture. Those additional people and the informal supports they create are key, because they will be involved with the family long after we are gone. We have to identify people in the families’ lives that can take the ball when we step aside.

Heidi