Working ith Denied Child Abuse The Resolutions Approach [Paperback]

• How can professionals build constructive relationships with families where the parents dispute professional allegations of serious child abuse?
• How can meaningful safety for children be created in these families?
• How can professionals work together constructively in such cases?

Situations where parents refute child abuse allegations made against them are often deemed to be impossible or untreatable by statutory and treatment professionals. These cases can consume enormous amounts of professional time and energy and frequently become bogged down by ongoing professional-family mistrust and dispute. Often, the decision to close such cases comes about not because the children are safe, but rather because the professionalsrun out of ideas, time and energy.

Working with 'Denied' Child Abusepresents an innovative, safety-focused, partnership-based, model called Resolutions, which provides an alternative approach for responding rigourously and creatively to such cases. It describes each stage of this practical model and demonstrates the approach through many case examples from therapists, statutory social workers and other professionals working in Europe, North America and Australasia. The book is key reading for legal, health and social care professionals working in the area of child protection.Introduction: Imagining Denial Differently

Chapter One: Thinking about Denial

Chapter Two: Principles that Inform the Resolutions Approach

Chapter Three: The Resolutions Model in Overview

Chapter Four: Before the Beginning

Chapter Five: Engaging the Parents and Network: From Multiple Stories through to the Story for the Children

Chapter Six: The Words and Pictures: Engaging and Involving the Children

Chapter Seven: Broadening and Deepening the Network's Involvement; Extended Family, Friends and Workmates

Chapter Eight: Family Safety Plan

Chapter Nine: Working in the Hypothetical: The Similar but Different Family

Chapter Ten: Finalizing l#˜