(1978). On Facilitating Networks for Social Change ... - INSNA

. . .Abstracts, cont'd - 43 -Angela FinlaysonGreenloaning, Kingsbarns, St . Andrews, ScotlandSocial Networks as Coping Resources :Lay Help and Consultation Patterns Used by Women inHusbands' Post-Infarction CareerSocial Scienceand Medicine 10 (1976) :97-103This study forms part of a larger sociological study into ways in which families coped with thecrisis presented by husbands' myocardial infarction . (A parallel study by McEwen deals with the menthemselves .) Part of the purpose was to examine differences between families in relation to differencesin outcome of the illness twelve months later . Outcome was classified as : "A" (favourable) in familieswhere the man was working and his wife defined the illness as over ; "B" (intermediate) in families where,although the man was working, the wife did not define the illness as over ; and "C" (unfavourable) infamilies where the man was not working .In the section of the study presented here the persons perceived by wives as helpers and layconsultants at the crisis and in the aftermath were identified and the categories of network which theyrepresented were analysed . Not unexpectedly, differences associated with social class were found . However,differences also appeared to be associated with the outcome of the illness for both nonmanual andmanual families considered separately : families where wives acknowledged fewer sources of network support,and where such sources were predominantly restricted to families of origin of either or both spouses,tended to experience less favourable outcomes (i .e . "B", and especially "C", as defined above) .Perceptions of support at the crisis had sometimes proved unrealistic in the aftermath . Nearly one infour women, while acknowledging practical help, felt that they lacked lay consultants and this oftenappeared associated with unfavourable outcome . Adult children as a source of sustained help and, moreunusually, as lay consultants seemed to be particularly valuable for wives of manual workers, sometimescompensating for difficulties experienced in consulting husbands .It is suggested that professional workers concerned with the coping resources available to familiesmay find it useful to check the presence or absence of perceived support from each of the categories usedin this study (children, wife's kin, husband's kin, non-kin, spouse) . By indicating the total range andtype of support, this might help to reveal deficiences pointing to a need for compensatory intervention .Frank Gatti and Cathy ColmanHarvard Medical School, Boston, Mass ., U .S .A .Community Network Therapy :An Approach to Aiding Families with Troubled ChildrenAmerican Journal of Orthopsychiatry 46 (10/76) :608-617This paper outlines a method of working with troubled children that draws upon structural familytherapy, school consultation, patient advocacy, and community mental health work . This blending ofapproaches is presented as the basis for an evolving mode of treatment referred to as community networktherapy . Four of its principal dimensions are described, and examples of its clinical application areoffered .For three years, we have consulted to the public school system in a town we shall call Charter,Massachusetts . Charter is a small town of 13,000 people . It is principally a working-class community,without extremes of wealth or poverty, but with an average family income somewhat lower than that ofsurrounding communities . There is no significant ethnic diversity ; the families are chiefly Caucasian,and of Protestant or Catholic background . The Charter school district adopted an active policy ofworking to meet the special needs of its school children, on an individualized basis . We were hired tohelp the school define and supply its mental health services .During these three years, we have evolved an approach to these children that combines a family anda community focus . In part we employ traditional structural family therapy, working with entire familiesand family subsystems, focusing on alliances, boundaries, etc . We add to this our active involvementwith the family in dealing with the community and its institutions . We use our knowledge of the communityand our place in it to build networks that are supportive and helpful to the family in solving itsproblems .