School-based Collaboration with Families : Constructing Family-School Agency Partnerships That Work

More and more therapists, teachers, social workers and parents are frustrated by their inability to work productively with students who are hyperactive, depressed, inattentive or using drugs. How can our schools meet the needs of chldren who are labelled "problem students"? In this book, J. Brien O'Callaghan offers therapists, and other helping professionals, practice-based solutions for fostering the healthy development of children - presenting a model of therapeutic assessment and intervention for working effectively with families, schools and other groups within the school setting. O'Callaghan provides a detailed step-by-step blueprint for implementing the collaborative model that he has used successfully in more than 300 school-based interventions. Drawing on his experience, he offers a framework for understanding and addressing behaviour problems within the context of students' family and school systems - instead of placing them in special education, drug rehabilitation, or other outside institutions. The author offers extensive practical guidelines for implementing a school-based collaboration with families, offering strategies for selling this model to schools, instructions for implementing team intervention meetings, and charts and diagrams revealing the roles of each of the groups involved.