The Power and Ethics of Social Network Intervention in Working with At-Risk Youth

Abstract

Approaches that intervene in and aim to build alliances in the client's family and network are common in child welfare, not at least in measures undertaken towards at-risk youth. The ideological components of democracy and empowerment are strong, and some claim an affinity to the ''natural'' problem solving of indigenous people. In the article some of these basic assumptions are called into question in the light of research on professional power and asymmetrical relations. Special attention is paid the network meeting which is supposed to shape common understanding and joint action. Eight network meetings of two network teams in Sweden were observed. The article concludes that social network intervention can be a powerful method. It can contribute to instilling hope and building alliances. However, the network meeting also produces explanations, roles and can bring premature disclosures because of the strong group dynamic forces. The power of the method therefore calls for an ethical awareness. It can be tempting to stimulate group dynamic forces to create climaxes in order to achieve ''good meetings'', but the consequences are not always easy to foresee or to control.

Parents' experiences of collaboration between welfare professionals regarding children with anxiety or depression - an explorative study

“…Accordingly, these authors discussed what they called ‘the deliberative forum’ as a strategy that can aid understanding through communication and thereby offer the participants a potential for learning. Forkby [ 16 ] described three categories of joint meetings that were referred to as network meetings: the full-scale intervention, structured network meetings, and open dialogue. This investigator explored network meetings as full-scale interventions and considered democracy and empowerment as strong ideological components of the meeting, and he also called for an ethical awareness on the part of the professionals.…”

“…This investigator explored network meetings as full-scale interventions and considered democracy and empowerment as strong ideological components of the meeting, and he also called for an ethical awareness on the part of the professionals. The joint meetings mentioned in our study correspond primarily to the second category mentioned by Forkby [ 16 ], that is, structured network meetings. These meetings include family members and professionals from the different organisations from which the family needs support, and they are held to allow the participants to discuss and to coordinate support and treatment.…”

The Implementation of Wraparound Model in Israel - An Alternative to Out-of-Home Placement of Delinquent Juveniles

“…al., 2006;Toffalo, 2000). A shared feature of the different approaches and methods included in this model, express in addressing the responses to the treated youth and their families, based on trustful relations and the collaboration of formal and informal community supporters (Burns et al, 2000;Forkby, 2009;Freymond & Cameron, 2006).…”

“…However, despite the difficulty and complexity of achieving equality in treatment, this seems possible, especially through striving for an open dialogue and equality in voices. Support for this can be found in the studies who found that using equality in voices (hearing all voices, and giving weight to each voice, especially of patients), while using negotiation and persuasion techniques, rather than coercion, led to reaching consensus and alliances in the treatment process of atrisk youth (Forkby, 2009).…”

Organisational exceptions as vehicles for change: collaborative strategies, trust, and counter strategies in local crime prevention partnerships in Sweden

“…However different in form, both the enthusiastic and the hesitant used counterstrategies that served to protect their territorial claims. It was important for the enthusiasts to take initiative of the agenda and thereby project their ideas onto the partnerships they were confronted with, whether it be a routine for safeguarding a rapid response to young criminals from social services or to support social network intervention teams (Forkby, 2009). In this way, at least some of the enthusiasts expanded their territory by colonialising the coloniser, i.e.…”