Child fatality reviews continue to show us that while families engage in dangerous dynamics that lead to harm, so, unfortunately, can the professionals and agencies working with them. Inadvertently contributing to a poor outcome for a child, young person or family member can have a devastating effect on workers and often leads to resignation from the profession. This one-day workshop provides an in-depth look at the concept of professional dangerousness in relation to child and family work and explores individual and organization dangerous dynamics that can occur. It then provides strategies to prevent professional dangerousness from an individual and agency perspective, and explores the concept of self-forgiveness as a way to manage practice mistakes through increasing self-awareness and reflexivity.
By the end of this workshop participants will be able to:
- Describe the concept of professional dangerousness
- Name individual and professional dangerous dynamics linked to the four types of family resistance
- Describe the concepts of hostage theory and the professional accommodation syndrome
- Identify individual and agency strategies to prevent professional dangerousness
- Identify ways to assist workers to best manage practice mistakes through exploring the concept of self-forgiveness to increase self-awareness and reflexivity