Hi All

 

I have just had a look at Andrew’s presentation and did find it very interesting. (I would be interested to hear what the audience’s reaction was too.)

 

Andrew has drawn attention to some of the social forces impacting on lone female parents (who are frequently affected by poverty) at the beginning of the presentation, which is something that we don’t do enough.

 

The presentation goes on to show how a narrative approach can be helpful to an individual parent and her children. It also shows how the approach can take us into areas that may not always be comfortable for workers like us.

 

The presentation then raises a dilemma for me. Working with individual families, we are inevitably drawn into their specific life story. Social deprivation is often a backdrop to this story but is rarely centre-stage for the family. The family is often engaged with some of the more immediate impacts of the stresses induced by these living circumstances, such as drug-use and domestic violence.

 

There is an issue for me about how much we replicate the stigmatisation of families in these situations by working with them individually. How do we do this work in an ethical manner, so that working with individual families does not further establish the social story of their inherently flawed nature?

 

Are we saying that they need therapy?

 

Carl