Harnessing Resilience in Practice with Vulnerable Children Scoping parent and worker perceptions and

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Harnessing Resilience in Practice with
Vulnerable ChildrenScoping parent and worker
perceptions and congruence with the
literatureEdwina Farrall, Fiona Arney,
Annette Michaux
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An International Partnership

• UK
• Centre for Learning in Child Protection
• University of Stirling
• Barnardos
• Prof. Brigid Daniel, Dr Sharon Vincent, Ms. Jane
  Glover, Ms. Barbara Robinson
• Australia
• The Australian Centre for Child Protection
• The Benevolent Society
• Dr Fiona Arney, Dr Edwina Farrall, Ms. Kerry
  Lewig, Ms. Annette Michaux

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With a burning question

• How is the Concept of Resilience Operationalised
  in Practice with Vulnerable Children?
• When an organization has the explicit aim of
  nurturing resilience in vulnerable children,
• How do practitioners translate that aim into
  practice, and
• How congruent is the described practice with the
  principles indicated by the existing literature
  on resilience?

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Method Sampling and Measures

• UK and Australia Survey administration and
  detailed case studies within the organizations
• Survey Target 100 service practitioners
• AIM To obtain practitioners views about their
  understanding of the concept of resilience, how
  they put it into practice and its perceived
  strengths and weaknesses.
• Case Studies Target 20 files
• AIM To produce a detailed description of the
  work with vulnerable children and their families
  in a setting where practice is explicitly
  resilience-lead, and to analyse it with reference
  to the research evidence about factors associated
  with resilience.

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The Resilience Literature

• How is resilience defined?
• A convergent definition
• a process or phenomenon reflecting positive
  adaptation despite experiences of significant
  adversity or trauma
• Difficulties in delineating adversity and
  adaptation
• How is resilience nested within principles of
  practice?
• Reduce vulnerabilities and risk
• Reduce number of stressors and pile-up
• Increase available resources (internal and
  external)

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Participants and Services Involved

• Surveys
• 108 in UK and 93 in Australia
• Case Studies
• 18 children in UK
• aged 7-10 years 83 male
• 83 white
• 14 families in Australia (reflecting 28
  children),
• aged 9 months to 18 years complete gender
  balance
• 93 white

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The Services

• Type of work carried out in Australia and UK

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Nature of the work undertaken

• Resilience-related issues addressed by services

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A major point of difference

• UK vs. Australia Service orientation and
  targeted receiving group
• UK Two childrens services working with kids in
  an out-of-home setting, focusing on social and
  emotional well-being of individual children only
• England Improve childrens emotional resilience.
  Use of Daniel and Wassels (2002) resilience
  intervention model
• Target Secure Base, Friendships, Talents and
  Interests, Education, Positive Values, and Social
  Competencies
• Scotland Nurture Group. Target childrens
  aggressive and/or maladaptive behaviours.

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In contrast

• Australia
• Focus on working with parents as the client
• Service 1
• Child Protection role
• Referrals from DOCS
• Prevent ongoing ROH and bolster chances of the
  family unit not entering the statutory CP
  processes again
• Service 2
• Early Intervention role
• Referrals from DOCS and the Community
• Work with vulnerable families (identified as such
  across a variety of criteria) to enhance
  parenting capacity and the well-being of children
  and parents alike

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FINDINGS

• Survey and Case Studies together (emphasis on
  Australian data)
• Analyses proceeded along four key dimensions
• 1. Understanding of resilience
• 2. Assessment and measurement of outcomes in
  resilience-based practice
• 3. Principles and features of resilience-led work
  with vulnerable children and families
• 4. Strengths and weaknesses of the concept of
  resilience for practice

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1. Understanding Resilience

• Generally, concept of resilience was
• Well-known and seen as easily applied
• Held to hold explicit and implicit relevance to
  their work
• Definitions
• were mostly concerned with resilience as a
  process that enables coping and adaptation to
  challenges and adversity
• Internal and external factors promoting coping or
  adaptation less frequently discussed

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Some example definitions

• Coping with or adapting to adversity, with common
  reference to inner or innate qualities
• A persons ability to weather the storms in life
  and bounce back. Ability to have internal
  resources to call upon in times of need.
• Being able to 'bounce back', achieve
  developmental milestones and wellbeing in spite
  of abuse, neglect, hardship.
• The feature of coping well with life
  adversities, and recovering quicker from a
  stressful event more about the individual, and
  their resources
• Its in the strengths of the person and the way
  theyre able to cope in challenging times

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Understanding Resilience Implications

• Need a clearer understanding of resilience if it
  is to be used to guide practice
• Policy documents referring to resilience must set
  out their operational definitions
• Relationships amongst various working
  definitions, interventions, and subsequent
  outcomes for children should be ascertained
• The parameters or scope of resilience must be
  set out if the concept is used to influence
  practice and policy.
• Consistency in definitions within services
  invoking its usage is the crux of the matter.

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Theories and Models in Use

• its very holistic and eclectic. Theres no one
  size fits all for anyone, you need to draw on the
  best parts (worker, NSWb)
• its very practical and holistic its about
  digesting issues (worker, NSWa)
• We use a strengths-based model, because when I
  do the case plan, I do it with the client, with
  the family, to make it totally about them. That
  works extremely well as it gives families total
  ownership of their problems (worker, NSWb)
• I believe everybodys got the potential to
  change, and focusing on peoples strengths is, in
  my experience, the only way you can do that the
  key to resilience or strengths-based work is the
  relationship you begin with I guess (worker,
  NSWa)
•  

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2. Measuring Resilience - Assessment

• UK Boxall Profile, Daniel Wassells (2002)
  Model
• Australia Family Strengths and Needs
  questionnaire, parental capacity and needs
  assessment
• Importance of Case Planning tool and process
• Eclectic assessment
• I do a lot of observations when I first go into
  a family. I sort of work out what is needed in
  the family, because every family is different
  (worker, NSWa)
• assessment is about engagement, talking, to let
  clients have a voice its inner work, seeing
  the world through their eyes(worker, NSWb)

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Measuring Resilience - Outcomes

• OUTCOMES
• Measured through informal channels and processes
• feedback from parents and other agencies,
  observations, anecdotal evidence, childrens art
• Positive (presence) and negative (absence)
  indicators of resilience
• Improved social skills, decreased anxiety,
  increased emotional regulation, better school
  performance, engagement in community activities

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Measuring Resilience Implications

• Consistency in outcome measurement to aid
  evaluation
• Policy Focused drive to incorporate sound
  outcome measurement
• Research to examine breadth of assessment and
  measurement tools recommend utility and
  relevance in the context of actual outcomes for
  clients
• ? Again, the emphasis lies on consistency of
  usage Assessment and outcome measurement
  procedures need to align to a resilience-based
  framework if this is the approach being
  explicitly espoused by the organization

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3. Resilience-Based Practice

• Three Main Principles
• Inclusive, respectful and engaged practice
• Strengths-based practice
• Solution focused approaches
• Also,
• Fostering community and social connectedness
• Attachment theory and Circle of Security
• Differences in ecological emphases Australia vs.
  UK

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Resilience in Practice - UK

• Intervention Themes
• Improvement of self-esteem / to like self more
• Improvement of peer relationships
• Improvement in school experience / behaviour
• Control of anger / managing disagreements
• Naming feelings / emotional literacy

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Resilience in Practice- Australia
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Australian Practice Chains of Support

• NSWb1
• Address mothers social isolation ? link mother
  with community supportive playgroup ?
  mother-child bonding and attachment is
  facilitated ? new social networks and connections
  with the community are created
• NSWa1
• Address uncontrolled behaviour, aggression in
  children/poor attachment evident ? assist father
  in putting strong boundaries, routines and
  expectations in place at home ? children seen as
  having greatly improved emotional regulation,
  able to cope in new spaces or with new people ?
  father more competent and relaxed

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Mapping interventions against the Literature

• 1. Health
• 2. Emotions attachment
• 3. Parenting confidence and skills
• 4. Legal issues
• 5.Employment/ET/edn/training
• 6. Finances/Housing
• 7. External supports for children
• 8. Reduce Social Isolation

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Resilience-based Practice Implications

• Practice should aim to target all ecological
  levels to align to a comprehensive view of
  resilience
• Policy Ecological supports, especially community
  level investment
• Building a common language around resilience to
  promote strategic change as disciplines and
  agencies endeavour to work in concert
• Flexibility for assessment and practice
  frameworks creativity and individualisation

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Resilience-based Practice Implications cont

• Comparative research Underlying processes vs.
  behaviours impacts of various ecological levels
• Impact and unique predictive value of attachment
  as central to intervention efforts
• Family definitions of adversity and their
  priorities for help
• Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate! Assessment of
  outcomes to see if resilience-based interventions
  work!!
• Essentially, resilience-based practice needs to
  aim for consistency in scope and application
  flexibility
• Outcome evaluation as critical for determining
  best practice

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4. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Concept
Harnessing Resilience in Practice

• All work with children and young people should
  be based on their needs and undertaken at their
  pace, including and involving them wherever
  possible. Working with resilience should be
  central to all practice, as it means working with
  strengths, optimism and respect for the young
  person and their experiences.
• A strengths-based approach is beneficial to the
  clients as well as the workers. It decreases
  burn-out in workers and makes them have a more
  positive approach to their work whilst achieving
  good outcomes.
• The benefit is it helps them clients to keep
  focused on hopeful solutions
• It helps me to maintain a relationship with
  hope, about some of my high-risk families

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Strengths and Weaknesses cont

• I'm not convinced that resilience is the best
  framework to apply. It can be a mask on occasions
  to more maladaptive functioning.
• Families need to want to have us on board. They
  have to be prepared to acknowledge challenges
  and to be willing to make some changes.
  Motivation is a very big thing!

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Conceptual Strengths and Weaknesses
Implications

• Beware apparent resilience
• Practice Assessment procedures
• Research into how best to combat unsustainable
  coping
• Beware hype and hand-balling of responsibilities
• Policy makers must remain critical and mindful of
  human impact
• Greater articulation and agreements re the role
  of statutory vs. non-statutory services
• ? Potential role of resilience frameworks as
  providing a delineation between areas of need and
  for promoting hope in a stressed and
  under-resourced workforce

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Trends and Messages from this International
Project

• Importance of end-user participation and
  readiness
• Engagement, receptiveness, and client investment
• They have made things so much better Ive never
  been this good, forever, I reckon! Im at my
  best, the best Ive been (father, NSWa)
• We can function as a family now they sons
  have become more secure, more loving they know
  how to hug me, to receive love (mother, NSWa)
• Ive managed to come out the other side, well,
  and happy (mother, NSWb)

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Future challenges and Foci

• Resilience as based on capacities or
  abilities
• Mechanisms of adversity less well understood
• Challenge of differentiating Resilience vs.
  Strengths-based approaches?
• Organizational considerations Transfer of ideals
  and agendas
• Major focus of next stage needs to be on outcome
  evaluation in services working with vulnerable
  children and families

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Acknowledgements

• Many thanks to the practitioners, managers,
  children, parents and carers who participated in
  this research. Your input was so greatly
  appreciated!
• Thank you
• Questions and comments

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Its like they need another level of
intervention, for those families escalating into
the child protection system that DOCS doesnt
have the capacity to pick up People forget our
clients are the children! If you look at any
family with an identified problem, sure you can
say its early intervention, but when you get in
there, you find that the problem has been
escalating for years!