Present service delivery technologies and processes are not only ineffective, they are destructive.
Concerns include:
a lack of effective prevention strategies and interventions:
While we clearly have the capacity to identify children with problems in living, we have no strategies for dealing with them in such a manner as to stave off further social deterioration.
a failure to see the child as a part of a family system
A child is both a giver and a receiver of social interactions within a system called a family. When such interactions develop and maintain problems in living, the best interventions enable adult family members to acquire new skills in which to change the family system processes. While families are often seen as part of the problem, they are rarely used as part of the solution despite full recognition of their impact.
a failure to see the child as part of a peer system
Of equal status to the family in terms of social competence, a rejection by peers because of atypical behaviors leads either to isolation or socialization by peers whose own behaviors are atypical and deviant.
pejorative labeling: It is a requirement of all child serving agencies that a threshold of behavior be documented to become eligible for services. Most often this documentation is articulation of the worst of the child/family at which point the child is labeled dependent, delinquent or mentally ill. None of these labels is particularly helpful to the child.
A continued search for pathology
removal from social roles and valued settings: Partially because there are no preventative strategies and partially because of the “factory” model of services, intense services require a removal from social roles and valued settings and rarely compensate or even support re-entry.
removal from personal responsibility: the key to authentic behavior change is the personal incorporation of the responsibility for change. None of the present technologies [biomedical, introspective or behavioral] provide for such incorporation and punishment is always imposed or self destructive.
A failure of the system of service delivery to learn
Unless specifically noted all materials are written by Jerome R. Gardner. As you will see by the size of the library contents, the materials are substantial. Since most of the writing was developed as think papers and not for publication, there will inevitably be some areas without proper citation. If you come across any, please notify the site manager and it will be rectified. Other than that, readers may use all materials. While I would prefer recognition, it is not necessary.
