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Family Engagement Involving Families in Their Children’s Health Care

Family Engagement Involving Families in Their Children’s Health Care. Twila Fundark, LISW, Region 1 – School Mental Health Advocate Delia Mendoza, LISW, Region 4 –School Mental Health Advocate. Objectives. Participants will be able to:

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Family Engagement Involving Families in Their Children’s Health Care

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  1. Family Engagement Involving Families in Their Children’s Health Care Twila Fundark, LISW, Region 1 – School Mental Health Advocate Delia Mendoza, LISW, Region 4 –School Mental Health Advocate

  2. Objectives Participants will be able to: • Assess self-interest & identify the importance of family engagement. • Learn different strategies of family engagement. • Identify ways to foster pro-active families and understanding multicultural perspectives. • Explore differences in schools of thought for family & individual therapy. • Identify benefits of family therapy.

  3. Where are you when it comes to Family Engagement?When you hear the term Family Engagement, you first think it is…. a). A new type of physical education. b). Getting the parents to sign all the forms and consents. c). Someone in the family just got engaged to be married. d). None of the above.

  4. Where are you….If you were asked to lead an effort to increase family engagement in your School Based setting, you would: a) Rather have a root canal. b) Think about it for a minute to two, have another cup of coffee, & remember that your real job is enough to keep you busy 24/7. c) Wonder how you might do something like that.. d) Jump for joy that someone wants you to tackle this as part of your job.

  5. Where are you……On a scale of 1 -10 (1 being low family engagement & 10 being the highest) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Low Somewhat High

  6. Why is Family Engagement important? • In academics, it is positively related to achievement and success in life. • In treatment, it fosters treatment effectiveness and youth resiliency.

  7. Other Benefits for children with engaged parents: • Enhance literacy • Increase school readiness • Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates • Decreased use of drugs & alcohol • Regular attendance • Increased motivation, better self-esteem • Graduation ready & attend higher education • Fewer instances of violent behavior Department of Ed, 2001

  8. Why Invest in Family Engagement?BECAUSE WE ARE PARTNERS IN THE WELFARE OF THEIR CHILDREN. • Better understand their needs, concerns and lifestyles. • Empower families to be informed and to take part of the healthcare decisions of their child. • Better understand multicultural perspectives. • Communication is a key factor – we can role model. • Family engagement is crucial even for adolescents.

  9. Why parents play a very important role? • All parents can have an influence on their children regardless of socioeconomic racial/ethnic, & educational background. IDEA Partnership, 2009

  10. Framing families into the picture (General) • Support-serving as a positive resource center for families. • Empower-promoting family involvement at the highest level.

  11. Strategies for Engagement • What are their interests & needs as parents? • What could meet their needs? • Other health care concerns? • Other community concerns? • Network of family and friends? • Culture and traditions?

  12. Addressing needs and barriers • Languages differences & varied health beliefs. • Daily commitments & responsibilities may affect time, energy, & attention. • Parent’s level of comfort. • Transportation, remoteness, etc. • Stigma and labeling. • Parents as obstacles. • Fearing the consequences of disclosure (hospitalization). • Lack of resources.

  13. Cultural & Traditional • The role of the extended family. • The communal support provides benefit. • The health of the family unit and the welfare of each member is important.

  14. Fostering pro-active families • The usage of phone calls or emails reduces perceived barriers to services access. • Include families in services & decision-making about services offered. • Children report higher levels of self-efficiency and greater investment in the treatment process. • Collaboration with parents in the treatment process reduces the time spent in the treatment environment.

  15. General Systems Theory • A system represents a set of units that stand in some consistent relationship to one another. • A system is organized around relationships. • Elements (units) interact with each other in a predictable, “organized” fashion. • Units, once combined form an entity - a whole, greater than the sum of its parts. • No element can be understood in isolation.

  16. Family Systems Theory • Individuals are best understood through assessing the interactions within the entire family. • Symptoms often viewed as an expression of a dysfunction within a family. • Individuals are connected to living systems. • Addresses the family unit including the “identified” patient. • Family provides the primary context for understanding how individuals function. • It’s relational.

  17. Family Therapy • From a systems view- • Relationships are the agents of change • Think circularly (A & B mutually influence one another) • Ask, what? • Treat the interactions between individuals. • Focus on the present. Allyn & Bacon 2003

  18. Need 4 Volunteers! Time for Role Play……

  19. Observations…. • 1st Scenario • 2nd Scenario

  20. Individual Therapy vs. Family Therapy Individual Therapies Family Therapies Focus on process Attempt to understand context Greater complexity Recognize individual & family development Allyn & Bacon 2003 • Focus on content • Has not generally attended to context • Can be reductionist • Recognize individual developmental

  21. Benefits of family therapy • Symptoms as interactional influences. • Promotes communication. • No blaming for a particular dysfunction. • Family is empowered. • New perspective on understanding & working through both the individual problems and relationship concerns. • Changes are faster and easier to maintain; built in support system.

  22. Tips-Engaging families in services • Make services user-friendly to parents. • Validate parent frustration and the fact their child is experiencing difficulties. • Never blame parents for child’s problems. • Appeal to parent’s desire for things to be better. • Address misperceptions about learning parenting skills and/or parent training techniques.

  23. Tips… • Don’t give up: family engagement is a long and sometimes difficult process. • Be genuinely interested about their lives. • Educate family about benefits of their participation • improve emotional climate of family • increase cohesion • reduce conflict

  24. Perspective…… - If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.

  25. Questions?

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