Collaborative Helping

ISBN-13: 9781118567630 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 240 str.

Madsen, William C.

Opis

An interdisciplinary framework for sustainable helping through cross-system collaboration This hands-on resource provides clear, practical guidance for supportive service professionals working in a home-based environment. Drawing on best practices from a range of disciplines, this book provides a clear map for dealing with the complex and often ambiguous situations that arise with individuals and families, with applications extending to supervision and organizational change. Readers gain the advice and insight of real-world frontline helpers, as well as those who receive care, highlighting new ways to approach the work and re-think previous conceptualizations of problems and strengths. Helping efforts are organized around a shared, forward-thinking vision that anticipates obstacles and draws on existing and potential supports in developing a collaborative plan of action. The book begins with stories that illustrate core concepts and context, presenting a number of useful ideas that can reorient behavioral services while outlining a principle-based practice framework to help workers stay grounded and focused. Problems are addressed, and strength-based work is expanded into richer conversations about strengths in the context of intention and purpose, value and belief, hopes, dreams, and commitments. Topics include:

• Contextual guidance with helping maps
• Engaging people and re-thinking problems and strengths
• Dilemmas in home and community services
• Sustainable helping through collaboration and support

A strong collaboration between natural networks, communities, and trained professionals across systems creates an effective helping endeavor. Ensuring sustainability may involve promoting systems change, and building institutional supports for specific supervisory, management, and organizational practices. Collaborative Helping provides a framework for organizing these efforts into a coherent whole, serving the needs of supportive services workers across sectors.

This book outlines a clear map for dealing with the complex and often ambiguous situations encountered by those working in supportive services. Drawing from numerous interviews with frontline helpers and people seeking help, this resource uses stories to introduce and illustrate core ideas and practices.

Spis treści

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction xi

About the Authors xix

chapter 1 Helping: What, How, and Why 1

Stories of Helping Relationships 1

Walking and Talking 8

Helping Activities The What of Helping 9

Relational Connection The How of Helping 12

Experience and Stories The Why of Helping 14

Placing Collaborative Helping in a Broader Context 17

Moving Collaborative Helping Into the Future 20

chapter 2 Cornerstones of Collaborative Helping 23

Collaborative Helping as a Principle–Based Approach 23

Collaborative Helping and Relational Stance 26

Collaborative Helping and a Focus on Life Stories 33

Collaborative Helping and Inquiry 40

The Cornerstones in Plain English 46

chapter 3 A Map to Guide Helping Efforts 49

Introducing Collaborative Helping Maps 50

The Collaborative Helping Map in Action 52

Organizing Vision and Preferred Directions in Life 53

Obstacles and Supports 58

The Plan 64

The Usefulness of a Map 68

chapter 4 Collaborative Helping Maps in Different Contexts 69

Using Collaborative Helping Maps in Residential Programs 69

Using Collaborative Helping Maps to Enhance Conversations in Child Protective Services 78

Using Collaborative Helping Maps in the Changing World of Health Care 91

Current and Potential Uses for Collaborative Helping Maps 96

chapter 5 Engaging People to Envision New Lives 99

Engagement Who Are You and What Is Important to You? 99

Vision Where Would You Like to Be Headed in Your Life? 102

Engagement Difficulties 108

Engaging a Youth with a No Problem Stance 111

Engaging a Woman with a No Control Stance 115

Difficulties Developing a Vision 118

Connecting to Build Desired Futures 123

chapter 6 Rethinking Problems and Strengths 125

Rethinking Strengths and Needs 126

Conversations about Problems as Obstacles Separate from People 127

A Map for Externalizing Conversations about Problems 135

Conversations about Strengths as Intentional Practices of Living 139

A Map for Conversations about Strengths 142

Applications of Conversations about Strengths 144

New Conversations about Problems and Strengths 148

chapter 7 Dilemmas in Home and Community Services 151

Concrete Help, Boundaries, and the Terrain of Home and Community Work 152

The Contribution of Family Partners to Collaborative Helping 159

Relational Stance and Advocacy Efforts 161

Power Dynamics in Working With the Larger Helping System 162

Dilemmas in Advocacy Efforts 166

Helping People More Effectively Advocate for Themselves 173

In the End, It s Still Walking and Talking 174

chapter 8 Sustainable Helping 177

Using Collaborative Helping Maps to Enhance Supervision 177

Building Institutional Structures that Support Collaboration 183

Building Organizational Cultures that Support Collaboration 190

A Brief Look Back 199

References 203

Index 209

O autorze

WILLIAM MADSEN, PhD, is an internationally–renowned consultant in the fields of family therapy and social work. He is the author of Collaborative Therapy with Multi–Stressed Families, a social work text used widely by public agencies and graduate programs. In 2013, he was awarded the Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy, Theory, and Practice award by the American Family Therapy Academy.

KEVIN GILLESPIE, MHSA, RN, is the Executive Director of Integrated Services and the founding director of Blue Sky Alliance of Appalachian Ohio. He has more than 30 years of experience combining direct service, system development, and administration. His work focuses on innovative service solutions for public service systems and in alliance with therapeutic, housing, and employment professionals.

Blurb

Praise for Collaborative Helping: A Strengths Framework for Home–Based Services

Collaborative Helping is a must read for all community–based workers in multi–stressed social contexts. Prevalent intervention models, focused on reducing youth and family deficits, too often become problemsaturated and defeated by clients overwhelming life challenges. In contrast, the authors strength–based family centered approach immediately practical and effective breathes new hope, possibilities, and vision into their lives, encouraging their best efforts and mutual support toward their aspirations and positive growth.
Froma Walsh, PhD, Co–Founder & Co–Director, Chicago Center for Family Health; Mose & Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita, The University of Chicago, Author, Strengthening Family Resilience

Collaborative Helping provides a practical, principle–based approach for working alongside people in the community. Case managers and paraprofessionals who work in health, mental health, employment, and other organizations will benefit from reading and adopting both the collaborative, strength–based stance and the strategy for mapping client plans and goals as described in this book.
Benjamin M. Ogles, Dean and Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Rarely have I read a book that so clearly links theory to practice in such a useful way. This book is an insightful guide for making Health and Human Services more sympathetic to those who become part of complex systems. It offers a hopeful, engaging model of practice to help workers and their agencies respond effectively to families in crisis. It is a must read for every front–line worker and agency supervisor.
Michael Ungar, PhD, Co–Director, Resilience Research Centre, Professor of Social Work, Dalhousie University

This book is a guide that all helping professionals can use to navigate the complexities of home and community work by building collaborative relationships with clients and their families. Containing advice for working with individual clients and their families, it also provides strategies for dealing with reluctant and difficult clients using a strengths–based, client–centered perspective.

Drawing from the authors 60 years of combined experience in the field and numerous interviews with frontline practitioners and people seeking help, this resource uses stories to introduce and illustrate core ideas and practices. The book offers a framework for helping professionals across many different contexts to assist clients to envision desired lives, address long–standing problems, and develop effective coping strategies in the context of their local communities. Collaborative Helping is a road map, for workers such as case managers, child welfare workers, home health care workers, residential workers, as well as those who train, educate, and supervise those workers. This sustainable, strengths–based model of collaborative helping is widely applicable, including integrated care environments as well as organizations using a recovery and client–centered approach.