Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

The Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE)-15 scale is a widely used tool for measuring family functioning across three dimensions: strengths and adaptability, overwhelmed by difficulties, and disrupted communication. This study assessed the factorial validity and reliability of the SCORE-15 in the Mozambican context. Four-hundred university students completed the SCORE-15 scale and the depression, anxiety and hostility subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). The confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure that presented adequate model fit and reliability indexes. Poorer family functioning was correlated with psychopathological symptoms, except for the association between depression and disrupted communication. Women revealed higher levels of disrupted communication, while being single was associated with lower levels of being overwhelmed by difficulties and disrupted communication. Age was positively associated with being overwhelmed by difficulties and disrupted communication. The Mozambican version of the SCORE-15 showed good factorial validity and reliability and can be used in this national diverse socio-cultural context.

The present article reports foster carer perceptions of the long-term effectiveness of a carer-focussed training intervention – the Fostering Changes (FC) programme. Five foster carers who completed FC at a not-for-profit child and family agency in New Zealand were interviewed 13–15 months post-training about their experiences and perceptions of FC and its subsequent effectiveness. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) informed both data collection and analysis. Five superordinate themes were identified: (1) FC is perceived to be an effective training programme that provides sustained benefits; (2) foster carer training is crucially important; (3) the challenges of fostering continue, irrespective of training; (4) caregiver confidence gained from training wanes over time in the face of persistent challenges; (5) foster carers require ongoing therapeutic interventions and support because of their children's persistent behavioural and relational difficulties. The findings suggest that, while FC provides effective and relevant training, carers simultaneously require ongoing clinical services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the ways in which marriage and family therapists (MFTs)/couple and family therapists (CFTs) engage in clinical supervision. Traditional face-to-face supervisory relationships have transitioned to telesupervision, which refers to supervisors using the internet as a training medium for their supervisees. Supervisors and supervisees alike are necessarily adapting to telesupervision relationships in an evolving world. As emergency protocols begin to give way to more routine procedures, it is important for supervisors to engage in meaningful conversations around the benefits, the challenges, and the future of telesupervision. This article discusses the various facets of telesupervision, including ethical implications, supervision modalities, the virtual supervisory alliance, the impact of telesupervision upon self-of-the-therapist work, and the potential benefits of telesupervision.

Practitioner points

Enhancing family involvement in a department of psychiatry, requires more than guidelines or interventions implemented by professional caregivers. This paper describes the development of multi-party dialogue between inpatients, family caregivers, professional caregivers and family organisations and applied change management strategies evolving to an effective family participation model. Phase 1 considers pre-existing practices and collaborations. Phase 2 initiates a change management process and multi-party dialogue. Phase 3 is future work. A shift in culture re-focuses attention towards family caregivers on all levels of the ‘Family Reflex’, which refers to a multidisciplinary family policy with clear guidelines.

Practitioner points

The Resolutions Approach (RA) is a solution-based intervention that has a unique way of dealing with parental denial of child abuse occurrences. The aim of this scoping review is to summarise knowledge about the benefits of the RA and identify areas for future research. After describing the theoretical background, the intervention steps are illustrated. Next, results of a systematic literature search on the effectiveness and other clinical benefits of the RA are presented. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research. Our search identified two published articles and one dissertation. Findings indicate that the RA might be useful in stopping child abuse and in improving cooperation between families and professionals. Parents experienced more control over their situation, and guardians perceived the method to be transparent. The RA is a well-described method that respectfully deals with families in which a lack of safety is observed. Future empirical research on the RA is necessary.

Practitioner points