ASSESSING DISORGANIZED
ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOUR
IN CHILDREN
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ASSESSING
DISORGANIZED
ATTACHMENT
BEHAVIOUR IN
CHILDREN
An Evidence-Based Model for Understanding and Supporting Families
Edited by David Shemmings and Yvonne Shemmings
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
First published in 2014
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
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London N1 9BE, UK
and
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Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Assessing disorganized attachment behaviour in children : an evidence-based model for understanding
and supporting families / edited by David Shemmings and Yvonne Shemmings.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84905-322-8
1. Attachment behavior in children. 2. Behavioral assessment of children. 3. Child welfare. 4. Social
work with children. 5. Family social work. 6. Psychiatric social work. I. Shemmings, David. II.
Shemmings, Yvonne.
BF723.A75A84 2014
155.418--dc23
2013047573
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781849053228
eISBN 9780857006639
To the memory of Tony Leonard
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Yael Schmueli-Goetz from the Anna Freud Centre, London, for her expertise and helpful comments on . We also thank Denise Tucker for her skilled job of indexing the book.
Contents
Identifying Low Mentalizing Capacity Using the Adult Attachment
Interview
Working with Disconnected or Insensitive Parents by Increasing
Mentalizing Capacity
Introducing the ADAM Project Across the Entire Children and
Families Department in Enfield, London
Using Pathway Model Components as Counter-indicators in a
Complex Child Protection Referral
Fake It Till You Make It: Can Deliberately Adopting Secure
Attachment Behaviour Lead to Secure Attachment Organization?
Introduction
David Shemmings and Yvonne Shemmings
Challenges in child welfare and protection work
Across the world, many child protection professionals and the organizations they work in are facing three key challenges. First, they are having to respond to newer forms of abuse, including sexual exploitation, child trafficking and the use of the Internet for grooming purposes (including now by terrorist organizations). Second, in tackling the challenges of the past 2030 years they are likely to have developed cumbersome, highly bureaucratic, procedurally based systems and practices, which usually involve ever more complex risk assessment processes and paperwork. Third, their efforts over the past five or so years have been impeded by significant reductions in government spending as a result of the financial crisis of 20072008 which in turn may have led to double-dip recessions and economic depressions, the result of which has been the imposition of severe austerity measures (which have usually fallen disproportionately on those who can afford it least).
In the UK, there has been a fourth challenge. Referrals to child protection agencies have risen sharply after a number of high-profile child deaths. Coupled with a sometimes unforgiving and punitive stance in some parts of the media, professionals are under a great deal of pressure, caught in the Catch-22 of being damned if they do and damned if they dont. Take a child away from their family by mistake and you are pilloried as a nanny-state family wrecker, but fail to remove a child when, often retrospectively, it appears they were at risk, and you will be branded as incompetent, naive, easily fobbed off, a bozo to name but a few of the epithets used by the British tabloid press in recent years.
It is an enormously difficult, but certainly not an impossible task, if workers are clear about what they are seeking. They have to be able to slice thin the myriad amount of information they will acquire, first to understand what is going on and then, having made more sense of it, to be able to share these insights openly but sensitively with family members to see how they can be best helped to protect their children. What we have learned is that when professionals are confident, but without ever becoming complacent or arrogant, this leads to safer practice and greater job satisfaction. But to do this they need help to make sense of and face the emotional pressures of child protection work. An examination of these dynamics in practice is the focus of the book.
In this edited volume we have asked some practitioners who have become skilled in the use of a contemporary, evidence-based model to reflect on how they have used it with children and families. The book is written for professionals working with families where there are child protection concerns. It offers practitioners a powerful way of understanding child abuse and neglect, but more importantly it offers hope for families for them to stay together whenever possible.
Background
This book is primarily about the application of the Assessment of Disorganised Attachment and Maltreatment (ADAM) Project to child protection practice. We established the ADAM Project in May 2009 to help professionals investigating allegations of maltreatment and to help families keep children safe, with their parents. At the end of a four-day course spread over four months participants are able to draw upon a number of assessment techniques adapted for use pragmatically by busy child protection practitioners. During the one-month gap between sessions, those attending are expected to practise what, for most, are new methods. They are also encouraged to join chat groups and/or email us if they wish to discuss progress or problems when trying out new skills. We have a dedicated website and participants are urged to read all the notes available on each of the techniques.
