ISSUES OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

CONTRASTED WITH THE FAMILY THERAPY BEHAVIORAL MODEL

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the family preservation and family behavioral models of therapy for the treatment of issues of abuse and neglect. To this end, the paper reviews similarities and dissimilarities in components, elements, and postulates of both models. A brief look at the effectiveness of the two models is also presented.

Family Preservation Versus Behavioral Model

The Behavioral and Family Preservation models of family therapy for family systems dealing with issues of abuse and neglect have both commonalities and differences. Regarding commonalities, family preservation or the notion of keeping existing families together as a therapeutic objective is a treatment goal shared by both the family preservation model (see: Peterson, Kohrt, Shadoin & Authier, 1996) and the behavioral model of family therapy (see: Fantuzzo, 1990). In addition, therapists and counselors using both approaches often use at least some behavioral, cognitive-behavioral strategies and techniques (Pecora, Fraser & Haapala, 1992).

For example, in a study performed by Pecora, Fraser and Haapala (1992), which was conducted to evaluate an intensive home-based family preservation project providing services in Utah, the authors noted that the pretest-posttest case outcome data of 453 families who received intensive family preservation services in

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application and services of the Family-Based Intensive Treatment (FIT) Project, (designed to prevent the out-of-home placement of children) with the Family Reunification Project, which utilized intensive family preservation services (IFPS) to reunify children in out-of-home care placement with their biological families. In the study, data were drawn from the service delivery reports of workers for a group of 581 children in the FIT treatment sample and a group of 57 children receiving IFPS services. Data showed that diverse kinds of therapy were utilized as part of the services provided by the family preservation model with three types of therapeutic services being the ones most often used. These were the therapeutic practice approaches of: Rogerian relationship-building techniques; behavioral interventions (including parent skill-building, behavioral modification, and cognitive treatment); and the provision of concrete social services. One point that needs to be made here concerns the relevance of the just discussed differences between the behavioral and family preservation models. If these differences are not relevant to treatment outcomes, then they are of little practical concern and the selection of which model to u
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Approximate Word count = 2372
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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