Family-Centered Practice in Residential Treatment Settings: A Parent's Perspective

Engaging Families in the Residential Treatment Process Utilizing Family-Directed Structural Therapy

“…Furthermore, these families stated the need for more opportunities and resources for this service to continue in aftercare. Spencer and Powell (2000) published a paper outlining an interview John Powell conducted with Sandra Spencer, former Executive Director of the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health Services and mother of a child who has been placed in a residential setting, as well as psychiatrically hospitalized. Spencer spoke to the importance of family involvement in her son's care and cited a concrete barrier many families face, that is, geographic distance from the treatment center and a lack of time and resources to regularly travel to the facility.…”

“…These authors specifically give voice to the value families place on therapy via telephone to address this barrier. Spencer and Powell (2000) also stressed the need for family-centered services and the idea that staff and administrators must make the effort to thoroughly assess "the way we did things [at home]," and that "Families need to be given a voice-what are their hopes, dreams, and aspirations?" (p. 42).…”

“…First, time with parents for assessment and therapy is often limited (Spencer & Powell, 2000). Use of the adult assessment tool allows a great deal of information to be gathered very quickly.…”

Family-Centered Residential Treatment: Knowledge, Research, and Values Converge

“…Sandra Spencer, currently executive director of the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health (www.ffcmh.org) and mother of a child who has been in residential care, outlined her experiences from a parent's perspective (Spencer & Powell, 2000). Spencer's main recommendations include: (a) accessibility policies should make sure that parent-child contacts are not unnecessarily restricted, either immediately following admission or later; (b) staff should regularly and actively seek to share information about the child's status and behaviors; (c) sharing training and knowledge with parents would allow for parents to be active members in their child's ongoing treatment and to gain skills that allow consistent responses when the child visits or returns home; (d) transition planning and pacing must involve families and allow enough time to adjust slowly; (e) strategies employed to assist the child should be transferable to families and match family resources; (f) it is helpful to treat families with respect, considering their strengths and expertise, and ask about their cultural, religious, and other preferences; and (g) offering family support groups or recruiting mentors from other families would mitigate families' sense of isolation.…”

“…Spencer's main recommendations include: (a) accessibility policies should make sure that parent-child contacts are not unnecessarily restricted, either immediately following admission or later; (b) staff should regularly and actively seek to share information about the child's status and behaviors; (c) sharing training and knowledge with parents would allow for parents to be active members in their child's ongoing treatment and to gain skills that allow consistent responses when the child visits or returns home; (d) transition planning and pacing must involve families and allow enough time to adjust slowly; (e) strategies employed to assist the child should be transferable to families and match family resources; (f) it is helpful to treat families with respect, considering their strengths and expertise, and ask about their cultural, religious, and other preferences; and (g) offering family support groups or recruiting mentors from other families would mitigate families' sense of isolation. Although geographic distance frequently poses problems Uta M. Walter and Christopher G. Petr 7 in rural areas (Spencer & Powell, 2000) and may preclude frequent faceto-face family therapy sessions, results of a study by Springer and Stahmann (1998) indicate that parents also value family therapy over the telephone. Parents found phone interventions effective for helping family functioning and communication.…”