CONNECTING WITH FAMILIES: IT WORKS

1
CONNECTING WITH FAMILIESIT WORKS!

• Dr. Susana Gavidia-Payne
• and
• Ms. Margaret Nicol

2
Why Connecting with Families

• Importance of acknowledging the needs of families
  and carers
• Opportunity to reflect on our values
• Little training available
• Consensus about the meaning of family-centred
  practice.

3
Aims

• Identify the values and the attitudes of
  participants that may impact on their working
  relationship with families.
• Generate strategies which address current
  workplace issues in working with families.

4
Perceptions, attitudes, and values

• Perceptions
• The ways we see and think about the world around
  us.
• Attitudes
• Settled modes of thinking and behaviour that
  indicate your opinion of an event, perception, or
  situation
•  
• Values
•  .the standards by which a person directs his
  actions and defines, interprets, and judges all
  social phenomena..

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Attitudes that stand in the way of effective
parent-professional partnerships

• The parent as vulnerable client.
• The parent as patient.
• The parent as responsible for their
  son/daughters condition.
• The parent as less observant, less perceptive and
  less intelligent.
• The parent as adversary.
• The parent as pushy, angry, denying,
  parent from hell, resistant, or anxious.

6
Families attitudes towards disability
professionals

• Inability to listen to their concerns
• Inability to give the right information (i.e.,
  too much or too little)
• Always telling families what to do
• Lack of understanding of families competing
  priorities
• Families fears of being seen as inadequate
• Families fears of giving workers opportunities
  to judge them as been good or bad
• Families lack of confidence in their abilities.

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Summary

• People view the world in different ways
• A number of factors affect the way we view the
  world
• Our view of the world may not be always right or
  the same as the families we work with
•  
• We must recognise that our own perceptions,
  attitudes, and beliefs will influence our
  interactions with families
•  
• Instead of viewing differences as problems, we
  can look at them as opportunities to view things
  in a different way.

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A family-centred approach

• Finding out how you can best help your families
•  
• Viewing the family as a social support system
•  
• Recognising the importance of the context of
  family life in the development of individuals
•  
• Focussing on the strengths and resources of
  families (e.g., coping strategies)

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A family-centred approach (cont.)

• Believing that families can build on their
  strengths and increase their feelings of
  competence
•  
• Involving family members as active participants
  in any planning process
•  
• Enabling and empowering families (e.g.,
  information, support groups) so they can function
  effectively within their environmental contexts.

10
Communicating effectively with families

• Listening skills Focussing and following that a
  family member has to say
•  
• Reflecting families The ability to accurately
  and sensitively identify and reflect a family
  members feelings
•  
• Reflecting content The ability to restate the
  content of a family members message briefly and
  concisely. Identify clearly, what the family
  wants the workers to do

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Communicating effectively with families

• Effective questioning Structuring questions in
  a way that promotes understanding of the family
  and decision making
•  
• Problem-solving steps.