Book reviews -- Family Based Services: A Solution-Focused Approach by Insoo Kim Berg

Family Based Services: A Solution-Focused Approach. By Insoo Kim Berg. Evanston, IL: W. W. Norton, 1993. 208 pp. $23.00

In Family Based Services, Insoo Kim Berg outlines how family therapy techniques can be applied to crisis-prone, physically violent families. According to Berg "family-based services is a specialized service in child welfare that focuses on the family as the target of intervention, rather than the child or the parents separately." She implies that strengthening the existing parent-child bond and supporting the parents in their efforts to do a competent job is an effective and ethical approach for both the child and parents.

This book is timely. The current trend in child welfare is toward maintaining children in the home whenever possible. Although this is a noble idea, unfortunately, such an approach is often used to save money rather than to develop understanding of how we can effectively help crisis-prone physically violent families learn to become effective and loving families. This book fills a void by explaining family therapy approaches in a concrete manner that can be easily understood by the neophyte practitioner. It is an excellent primer for a beginning worker in the child welfare field.

The author focuses on strengthening and empowering the family unit and involving the family as a partner in the problem-resolution process rather than as an adversary. The book emphasizes family strengths and is solution focused. In chapter one, Berg offers some suggestions for the implementation of such services: services should be goal oriented, workers should have a light case load, and workers should be trained in generic treatment with specialized training in sex abuse and alcohol issues. Although these are excellent suggestions, the reality of the situation is sometimes overlooked. The majority of child welfare workers are overworked. While experts clamor for intensive short-term intervention by highly trained workers, legislators, who fund the majority of the child welfare programs, want the best programs for the least money. They take a short-term rather than preventive view of the problem. In order to fully implement the family-based service program as suggested in this book, child welfare agencies would have to increase their staff. Although I agree with Berg's approach, the book does not discuss the difficulties inherent in getting such interventions mandated.

Another problem with the family-based services approach is the difficulty in integrating legal and therapeutic approaches in the child welfare arena. The only way child welfare workers are able to gain permission to intervene in many families is by taking them to court, after which workers find it difficult to establish a therapeutic relationship. Here again, Berg focuses little attention on how to bridge this gap. One solution might be to have different workers handle the investigating and therapeutic interventions with families.

The book is well written. Berg provides extensive examples, including case examples and dialogue chat should be helpful to a new worker or someone unfamiliar with this approach. Berg walks readers through the steps they should take with families in order to establish a therapeutic and empowering relationship, anticipating questions that might arise: "how to know if you are taking sides," "what to do if the client does not follow suggestions," and "signs something needs to be done."

Clearly, Insoo Kim Berg is very knowledgeable about her topic. It would be useful if she took her final chapter on "Special Problems" and expanded it into another book. Such a book could deal with the issues Berg identifies in that last chapter, address issues identified in this review, and deal with issues of working with parents who are mentally ill or who do not recognize their behavior as problematical.

Copyright Family Service America May 1995
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