"Applying the Systemic Approach in Treating Children and Adolescents At Risk in the United States"

Presentation by:
Sharon Law, Marriage and Family Therapist (Los Angeles, USA)
Beijing
5th World Congress for Psychotherapy
Beijing, China - October 14, 2008
Abstract:
The speaker will share her overseas experience in leading an intensive treatment team that applies the systemic approach in working with children and teenagers at risk in the Los Angeles Area. In recent years, there has been a prominent increase of awareness and funding in the Untied States to provide intensive community-based treatment interventions to help children and teenagers who are at “high-risk”: those who are likely to be removed from their homes of origin due to repeated psychiatric hospitalization, problems with the law and/or severe abuse by their families. The speaker will demonstrate how she has made use of systemic thinking, contextualism and developmental theory in understanding and addressing the complex needs of these clients and their families, so that effective treatment protocols can be designed to enable them to improve their coping capacity. Practical aspects of the work will be illustrated through case studies that explore the importance of cross-cultural sensitivity, inter-departmental teamwork, multi-disciplinary collaboration, resource coordination and competent staff supervision. The presentation will include an in-depth discussion of the benefits of treatment success and potential challenges including sustainability, compassion fatigue and relapse prevention.
Links to Literature:

Transforming Children’s Mental Health Care in America: System of Care
http://www.systemsofcare.samhsa.gov/

Systems of Care A Promising Solution for Children with Serious
Emotional Disturbances and Their Families
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/Ca-0030/default.asp

California Children’s System of Care Funding (Power Point download)
www.dmh.ca.gov/mhsoac/docs/Meetings/2006/CA_CSOC_Funding.ppt

Mental Health Services Act Progress
www.dmh.ca.gov/Prop_63/MHSA/Publications/docs/ProgressReports/MHSA_Progress_July2008.pdf