![]() ![]() The NEATS: A child & family assessment (3rd ed.). I will be using this case study for next week’s post to highlight factors associated with good outcomes. Are they possible at your agency? If they are, what are your observations? If they are not, what do you think is best for families and children?.What are your thoughts about the importance of long-term relationships between service providers and service users in child and family work?.Please feel free to leave a comment below with your input on the questions posed here. More information about Ian’s case and the work Mary did with him and his father David is at ACE Case Studies and in my 2011 book, The NEATS: A Child & Family Assessment (3rd edition) 1. Ian’s life would have been much different without the services of the case manager and the eventual change in David’s beliefs. He has had the same girlfriend for two years and spends time with friends who are also attending college and who, like Ian, engage in prosocial activities. Ian graduated from high school and is studying computer programming while working part-time. Son and father learned to talk about feelings and emotion-laden topics with each other. David and Ian also sought psychoeducation for grief and loss as well as sexual development and child sexual abuse. When Ian at age 11 sexually abused a younger boy, Mary once again pointed out the need for sex-specific treatment as well as trauma-specific family therapy. The relationship was close enough that both Ian and David called Mary, Ian’s second mom. Mary maintained a good working relationship with Ian and David in terms of family visits and helping Ian participate in the many programs that ACE provided, such as outings to pools, parks, and sports events. David continued to believe that Ian’s issues did not require special attention and would simply fade into the background. She also recommended trauma-focused therapy that would involve David and Ian to participate. For example, Mary recommended sex-specific therapy, designed for children with sexual behavior issues. To Mary, Ian’s sexual acting out indicated that Ian had not received the help he required to cope with, adapt to, and overcome the effects of the complex traumas he had experienced earlier in his life.įor the first three years that Mary worked with the family, David refused to give permission for Ian to have any therapy. For further information about ACE, watch ACE Overview and ACE Interventions. ACE serves families over many years until it is clear that the risks and traumas for criminal behavior are offset by a long record of coping well, doing well in school, family, and community. In the state where Ian lived, the age of accountability is 10. The principal of Ian’s school, in consultation with a police officer who specialized in families and children, contacted the All Children Excel (ACE) Program to see if they could be of help.ĪCE serves children and families where the children have committed acts that would be charged as felonies if by law they were old enough. Ian’s sexual acting out raised questions about whether his sister’s husband, a registered sex offender, had sexually abused Ian years earlier. (For further information about children’s coercive sexual behaviors, see Children with Sexual Behavior Issues.) This was not sexual play, but penetration with some manipulation and force. When Ian was eight, he sexually abused the three-year old daughter of his day care provider who lived next door. Figure 2 shows the resources that were available to Ian. One teacher described Ian as “adorable” and said he was her favorite, although she tried not to show that she favored him. ![]() Teachers described him as a good student, who was attentive in class, and had many friends. Otherwise, he had an excellent job, earned a good income, and lived in a safe neighborhood with excellent schools and recreational opportunities. David, too, had experienced trauma, with the death of his wife and the murder of his granddaughter being most prominent. He did have a good relationship with his son in many ways, but he was dismissive of the effects of Ian’s trauma. David’s belief systems kept him for seeing that his son needed professional help to recover from his trauma. ![]() He didn’t realize that despite this sharing of activities and the feelings of closeness, he was dismissive in regard to Ian’s psychological trauma. ![]()
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