Effective strategies for working with children and families: Issues in the provision of therapeutic help

Abstract

Abstract This paper reviews the ability and effectiveness of different kinds of intervention in cases of child abuse. It gives an account of the kind of work carried out in Britain and considers the question of which professionals and which agencies become involved in providing therapy for children and families. While local authority social workers are still very much involved in providing psychosocial help to children and families where abuse has occurred and are protagonists in the investigation of abuse, there is some evidence that social workers from voluntary agencies and some child psychologists are increasingly providing therapeutic input. Approaches include play therapy and family therapy as well as cognitive-behavioural therapy. Organisational issues, in particular the purchaser/provider split and changes in funding in the UK, also affect the provision of therapeutic help. A further issue concerns the organisation and content of training for therapeutic intervention. The experiences of multi-disciplinary teaching on a post-graduate training course are reviewed. We conclude that the extent and nature of child abuse, and more specifically child sexual abuse, necessitates skilled, planned intervention from a range of professionals. No one agency or discipline is identified as the ideal provider of therapy, though certain trends can be discerned.