ECSPD Logowidth=  

Volume 11, Issue 2

 

   June 2008

Why Do We Do What We Do?Redefining and Supporting Success in Relationship-based Services

By Suzanne Pope

The following is a summary of some of the key ideas from an article by Marya Malinowski in the American Association for Home-Based Early Interventionists newsletter, News Exchange, June, 2007.

A relationship-based approach to service delivery is essential to maximizing the rich, natural learning opportunities available in everyday home and community settings. Using natural settings as the context for intervention intensifies the need for transdisciplinary teamwork in order to facilitate the dance of knowledge, skills and relationships required to meet family needs while accommodating family comfort levels and styles.Transdisciplinary teamwork is well recognized as the best model in promoting communication, sharing expertise, role release, and ensuring the centrality of the family as decision makers.

It is well documented that needs of families are increasing while resources decrease. The emphasis on natural environments highlights the complexity of family/provider relationships. Early interventionists find themselves in the ever-changing emotional struggles of the daily lives of the families they serve. This requires a sensitive balance between emotional involvement in and simultaneous detachment from the challenging lives of families.

Relationship-based work also requires a highly self-reflective way of working with other professionals. Early interventionists are not only asked to be emotionally self-aware as they participate in the dance of family relationships, but additionally to examine their defenses and roles in their interactions with team members. The depth of skills necessary to provide early intervention services includes intensive knowledge in the nuances of early childhood diagnoses, child development and family dynamics, discipline-specific preparation related to children’s special needs, and self-reflection and interpersonal skills.

When asked why they have chosen this work, many early interventionists respond by stating some form of “to help” or “to make a difference.” Lack of perceived “helping” can be experienced by service providers as failure. In the absence of self-reflection, this in turn can impact the course of intervention. Our goals as professionals, fired byholding hands our underlying personal needs and motivations, may actually interfere with our ability to provide successful intervention as perceived by the family.

The service delivery system in which early interventionists work must include a fully implemented and integrated practice of addressing the relationship and emotional issues a family brings to the table. The most essential ingredient to the emotionally-laden work of early intervention may be self-reflection. A practicing interventionist must be provided with opportunities for ongoing self-awareness through reflective supervision, training, and group processing. Reflective supervision increases the provider’s effectiveness and decreases anxiety and staff burn-out through thoughtful reflection on boundary, role, and other pertinent issues. Just as work and relationships with families take place over time, practitioners require time to work on their own emotional and psychological responses to the work they do.

The success of early intervention services is not the responsibility of families, of staff, or of service providers alone. A collaborative system, a “transdisciplinary system team,” that seriously considers the challenges and opportunities of successful service provision can be very effective in putting necessary supports into place by working together.
For more information contact: American Association for Home-Based Early Interventionists (AAHBEI) News Exchange, (800) 396-6144, www.aahbei.org