The Intervention Program For Children And Their Parents Essay

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

Salvador Minuchin, born and raised in Argentina, is known as the founder of structural family therapy (Colapinto, 1982). Before creating what would be known as his most lasting contribution, Minuchin spent years paving his way to his success. Traveling back and forth from Israel to the United States, Minuchin finally settled down in the year 1954 where he began training in psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute in the United States (Nichols, 2014). Following the White Institute, Minuchin began working at the Wiltwyck School, which consisted of delinquent boys from unsystematic, multi-problem, underprivileged families (Colapinto, 1982). At the time Minuchin began working there, therapists had found that certain clinical populations were not responding to traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). In fact, the population of delinquent children, like those that Minuchin was working with at Wiltwyck, resisted even more so than other populations to this traditional psychotherapy (Lappin, 1988). This was due to the fact that the traditional psychotherapeutic techniques used, were developed for middle-class patients who were verbally articulate (Colapinto, 1982). It was then when Minuchin realized that a new model of change was needed, particularly one that worked with unprivileged, delinquent boys (Lappin, 1988).

As the Workgroup on Principles and Practices in Natural Environments (2008b) supported, “a flexible, family-centered, individualized, and evidence-based early intervention process” is essential for the support of parents and caregivers to enhance their children’s development (Raver & Childress, 2015, p.10). In this paper, taking into consideration these principles, I will analyze two case studies; Alice, a 19 month old girl with a diagnosis of Down Syndrome and Shawn, a 30 month old boy who has difficulties in communication, sleep and feeding routines as well as social interactions.

One of the programs they review is the Multisystemic Therapy (MST) program. To prevent juveniles from repeating the same crimes they would keep them in the community instead of locking them away in jail. The juveniles would have family therapy, individual therapy, group therapy, and other types of support. As a result, “MST participants had a rate of recidivism of 22.1 percent…the individual therapy group which had a recidivism rate of 71.4 percent…those that participated only temporarily in the MST program also had a reduced recidivism rate of 46.6 percent compared to the control delinquent group MST participants had a significantly lower recidivism rate” (May, Osmond, and Billick 298). This programed showed that like the J RIP the delinquent juvenile who get help from their community are more likely to not go back to crime. The review also mentions, “one of the main goals of MST is to decrease the juvenile delinquents association with other delinquent youths, while facilitating familial support through communication and guided problem solving” (298). Because most criminals gain support from other criminals and learn new ways to commit crimes from them by keeping the influence away it shows the juveniles that that’s not the best route to

One of the prominent aspects of SFT is that it can be implemented with a wide variety of client’s, presenting problems and can be patently integrated with other models to address different populations. Navarre (1998) states that SFT is a model that can be used to treat a wide variety of culturally diverse dysfunctional families. According to Navarre (1998) SFT is ideal when working with Chinese and vietnamese families due to the high levels of structure with clear generational boundaries and roles this culture holds. As stated by Navarre (1998) hispanic families such as Mexican-Americans and Cuban families hold characteristics that fit well with SFT; these cultures include extended family members, rely on authority/respect and discourage interactions outside of the family which adds stress to other family members. According to McNeil, Herschberger and Nedela (2013). SFT and community family therapy were integrated and said to be useful in addressing low-income families with adolescents involved in gangs. Although this model has not been adjusted to specifically address couples the same guidelines are used to treat couples effectively (Calapinto, 1991). The couples that are treated using SFT are looked at as another subsystem and their interactions with other family members.

-Shifting the family’s view of treatment from focusing on the adolescent as “the problem” to enhancement of family relationships as an important part of the solution.

Structural Family Therapy (SFT) was invented by Salvador Minuchin while working with lower-socioeconomic-level Black families (Gladding, 2015). A main premise of the theory is that “an individual’s

St. Paul Children’s Foundation and Counseling primary focuses in on addressing medical, dental, mental health, and social determinants of the low-income children and families in the community. The goal in for the foundations staff, counselor and social work is to identify barriers that are affecting the clients served at the organization form reaching their fullest potential. In the counseling center, the LCSW’s main goal is to support clients in recognizing psychosocial stressors that are impacting their individual and family life. There are many children served in the counseling center who are currently experiencing trauma or have experienced trauma in the past and need help addressing these issues, and receiving tools to help them function better in their daily lives. In the case of Milagros, she came to the counseling center at the request of her mother, Maria, due to issues with parent-child relationship conflict, behavior concerns, and anxiety issues. The therapist and clients worked together on areas that they needed to address in future counseling session and the intervention plan was developed. The LCSW generally utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), 1-2-3 Magic, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and Family Behavior Therapy (FBT) to help clients in therapeutic counseling sessions. In this intervention paper, PCIT is the chosen intervention used in therapy sessions with Milagros and Maria.

There are a number of theories under the Family Systems Therapy group that focus on communication patterns within the family unit. Systems theory is based on the family’s response to feedback from one another and the desire of the group to make changes to maintain the status quo. In the family system we discover who we are, we grow and change, and we give and receive support that is necessary for survival (Corey, 2013). A number of theories exist based on various approaches, but the theory behind them is that families are SYSTEMS of interconnected and interdependent individuals and to understand the individual, we must understand the

This program assisted with youth ability to analyze their individuality, gain dignity and engage respectfully within their familial relationships and community (Harvey & Coleman, 1997). In-home therapy is conducted to build a rapport with youth and family members. Meeting the families in their home provides a comfortable environment to discuss concerns. Individual therapy is provided to allow youth to reflect and focus on decision making skills. Youth are given the time to discuss thoughts and communicate underlying issues that influence behaviors (Harvey & Coleman, 1997).

Caregivers who report caring for a loved one in an at-home environment tend to show more symptoms of depression, and fall into a poorer state of physical and mental health. Depending on the relationship status of the caregiver and the elder with dementia, fewer symptoms of depression may result than expected due to reduction of guilt, resentment, or burden towards the situation. In addition, experiencing pleasant activities on a daily basis boosts the caregiver's and the patient's mood, causing more satisfaction at the end of the day. Implementing a daily routine filled with physical activities, activities promoting cognitive functioning, and other mood-boosting activities guide the individual to engage with his or her community. Although these tasks may become harder to complete in later stages of dementia, it is crucial for maintenance of cognitive functioning along with higher levels of happiness.

As stated earlier in this section, depression in elementary aged students can be difficult to pick up on. Since this is the case, advocacy for these students becomes paramount. Along the same lines as treatment, the best plan for advocating for these students is to take a preventative approach. Another way to advocate is to get the parents involved. In a section talking about anxiety Huberty (2012) stated that including a family intervention was more effective for children 7-10. Now, it is important to state that this finding was concerning anxiety and not depression. However, the family intervention was part of a CBT intervention, which, Huberty (2012) argues is a well-supported method for treating both anxiety and depression.

As my group was one of the two child welfare groups, we opted to have the social worker be employed by the Department of Social Services. The family consisted of George and Mallory Smith, a Caucasian couple in their mid-thirties looking to adopt. As they were unable to conceive, they were seeking to adopt a Caucasian infant to round out their family.

I would approach the counseling session from a cognitive-behavior approach. It appears that Isabella is suffering from anxiety and the cognitive behavior approach to therapy would be a good match for the student. There are a number of aspects of the therapy that coincide with my belief system.

Parenting is a vital component in regulating video game usage. Parents need to be on the same page when it comes to setting boundaries on video game usage for their children. Boundaries could include making set time frames where the children are allowed to play. This is perhaps one of the most important elements to controlling how much your children play video games. There are programs and software available to help monitor the internet and video game use that your child is doing because you cannot always trust what a video game addict will tell you about their playtime. Parents need to be sure to not be ‘enablers’ in their children’s video game addiction habits.