Tough Love For Troubled Families

The transformation of mental health services for youth and families is happening in the the UK!  The following article, "Tough Love For Troubled Families" is from The Guardian.  




Ben Mansell is speaking to two of the team who are helping him to get his family life back on track: "You saw the light at the end of the tunnel otherwise you would have left. I give you maximum respect for that. You've clung on for dear life." It is an emotional moment in the small room of a family centre on an estate in Swindon.

Mansell, 46, is a committed father, but he admits that the last few years have been immensely difficult. The father of seven children, his wife had a drug problem and they were struggling to get the kids to school on time, their teenager was being bullied and refused to go to school. The older children were prone to violent outbursts. Children's services and the education welfare officers of the schools had been involved for a number of years.

Dave Murphy was in a similarly difficult situation, with his family about to be evicted for rent arrears and a risk that his two children would be taken into care. "I had problems with my neighbours and I had so many professionals telling me to sort things out, but they didn't have time to help me. I was in denial, I just couldn't see what they were talking about. We were in a really bad situation," he says.

Two years on and Murphy's life has been transformed; he has developed the confidence to overcome a speech impediment and now works as a volunteer teaching computer skills to elderly people, while his wife has got a full-time job. The kids are getting to school on time and they have kept their home. "I got a bit of help and I realised what I wanted and how I can be. When you feel that someone cares, then you care," says Murphy.



Just like the local effort here in Yakima County is... "the families are in the driving seat at every stage of the process. This is what sets it apart from other family intervention projects. Families are invited to join up after they have been referred by statutory agencies and, even more controversially, it is the families who recruit the professionals who will work with them. The families then work out with the team what the priorities are and how they want to tackle them."


It is the personal connection; i.e. love defined, "as trust, respect, non-judgmentalism and a willingness to share who you are," between the families and the professionals helping them, that is crucial to the youth's and their family's success; i.e. the program's success.  Success defined as better outcomes and cost effectiveness.


small wonder...