Working with Families of the Poor

by Minuchin, Patricia; Colapinto, Jorge; Minuchin, Salvador

• ISBN13: 9781572304062
• ISBN10: 1572304065
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-07-22
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

This eagerly awaited volume draws upon the authors' many years of experience in the inner city to provide vital guidance to therapists working with poor families. While standard counseling models are often limited to individual persons and their problems, this book emphasizes the importance of understanding individual needs within a larger family framework, and considering the family itself within broader organizational and community contexts. Weaving in numerous case histories and examples of practical interventions, the authors demonstrate how their inventive approach can be used to draw out clients' strengths and to make the most of limited social service resources. Readers will learn new techniques to gather information, reframe family assumptions, handle conflict, and explore alternative patterns of interaction. In addition, the authors show therapists how to increase the level of collaboration between poor families and the multiple agencies that provide assistance with foster care, substance abuse counseling, perinatal programs, residential and psychiatric centers for children, and home-based services.

Author Biography

Patricia Minuchin, PhD, is Co-director of Family Studies, Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts, and Professor Emeritus at Temple University. A development psychologist, she has written primarily about families in relation to individual development and on the impact of larger systems on the functioning of poor families and children.

Jorge Colapinto, Lic., is a family therapist and consultant for social service agencies. He is a former member of the staff of Family Studies, Inc., and currently directs the Foster Care Project, Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York, New York.
Salvador Minuchin, MD, Director of Family Studies, Inc., was formerly Director of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center. He has worked extensively with poor families and social agencies and has published a number of classic books on family therapy.

Table of Contents

PART ONE. FUNDAMENTALS OF THOUGHT AND PRACTICE	1	(86)
1. Prologue: Angie, Her Family, and the Community of Helpers	3	(8)
2. The Framework: A Systems Orientation and a Family-Centered Approach	11	(21)
3. Working in the System: Family-Supportive Skills	32	(34)
4. Changing the System: Family-Supportive Procedures	66	(21)
PART TWO. INTERVENTIONS IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS	87	(154)
5. Foster Care: An Ecological Model	91	(38)
6. Substance Abuse and Pregnancy: A Family-Oriented Perinatal Program	129	(28)
7. Institutionalizing Children I: Residential Centers	157	(28)
8. Institutionalizing Children II: Psychiatric Wards	185	(19)
9. Home-Based Services	204	(35)
10. Epilogue	239	(2)
REFERENCES	241	(2)
INDEX	243