Creating Change for Complex Children and Their Families ─ A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Multi-Family Work

Holmes et al., who are all associated with the Croft Child and Family Unit, a short-term residential psychiatric unit for children in the UK, outline a multidisciplinary, multi-family model of care their team has developed, for all professionals working with children with severe emotional and behavioral difficulties. They detail the use of multi-modal, multi-family approaches to creating the opportunity for change in very vulnerable children and their families and the complex relationships that emerge in this work and how to manage these dynamics to achieve the best outcomes. They describe their unit and how it admits both the children and parents and treats the family as a whole, their multidisciplinary team, the process of engagement, the role of containment and nurturance as a foundation for therapeutic work, and multi-modal approaches to assessment and treatment, including group therapy; assessing learning; fostering the social world through art and music therapy, play, yoga, and other techniques; individual and family assessments and therapy; and helping families create a new vision of themselves. They conclude with a chapter on measuring the efficacy of treatment and relate accounts from children and their parents during treatment. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jo Holmes has been the Medical Director of the Croft Child and Family Unit for over ten years. She undertakes specialist assessments of children relating to autism spectrum disorders, attachment disorders and other conditions. She also trains child psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Amelia Oldfield is a music therapist at the Croft Child and Family Unit and has worked in child and family psychiatry for over 20 years. She is a lecturer in Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University. Marion Polichroniadis was a consultant clinical psychologist at the Croft Child and Family Unit. She has over 30 years' experience of working as a child psychologist in a range of settings including education, child development centres and child and adolescent mental health services.