Broadening the Context: Applications in Different Professional Contexts

Throughout this book we have examined the conditions under which children may be particularly vulnerable, and we have looked at the risks as well as the protective factors that will promote resilience in children and families. Our work has been done in the context of a multidisciplinary Child and Family Mental Health Service. In this chapter we consider how a range of professionals who are likely to come into contact with children going through the family transitions following separation and divorce can bear in mind the dilemmas we have described as these relate to their own work. We have focused in particular on those who are likely to work directly with children as they go through divorce and family change. We are aware of the many other professionals whose contact with the family or focus of work may be different, who will nonetheless be working with children for whom divorce and family reordering is a large part of their childhood experience. The problems for which they are referred may not be directly connected to separation issues by the referring person. However, it is important for professionals to bear these issues in mind and to ask about them when considering what help to offer. Similarly, professionals working with adults, particularly in the social services and mental health field, will need to remember the relevance of divorce to their clients’ experience, or to the experience of their clients’ children.