Andrew Turnell – författare

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 Abuse presents 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.

It focuses on the question, "How can child protection professionals actually build partnerships with parents where there is suspected or substantiated child abuse or neglect?"The authors bring the solution orientation to child protection work, expanding the investigation of risk to encompass signs of safety that can be built upon to stabilize and strengthen the child's and family's situation. The philosophy behind this approach is clearly articulated through ten practice principles that serve as guiding beacons for child protection workers as they traverse the rough waters of abuse and neglect investigation.Child protection workers are involved with vulnerable, at-risk children in potentially volatile situations. Here they will find a new child protection assessment and planning protocol that allows for comprehensive risk assessment incorporating both danger and safety and the perspectives of both professionals and service recipients (parents). The authors provide practical, hands-on strategies for building a partnership with parents, which may, in the long run, prevent abuse and family dissolution. They illustrate these strategies in cases showing the subtle process of integrating the seemingly opposite notions of coercion and cooperation.Respectful, optimistic, and highly practical, this book promises to revitalize and redirect child protection services.

This text and professional resource offers an alternative approach to thinking about and working with “difficult” families. From a nonpathologizing stance, William C. Madsen demonstrates creative ways to help family members shift their relationship to longstanding problems; envision desired lives; and develop more proactive coping strategies. Anyone working with families in crisis, especially in settings where time and resources are scarce, will gain valuable insights and tools from this book.