Foreldre med kognitive vansker WEB

the same people provided reports to the child welfare which led to the case to theCounty Social Welfare Tribunal. The stories of parents clearly suggests that childwelfare needs to reconsider how parents are involved in the whole process in arespectful manner, and also that there is a long way to go to adequately support parentsafter they have lost custody. Supports from informal social networks also vary amonginterviewees, but many have substantial support from grandparents. A family networkcan be supportive both practically and emotionally. To what extend the child welfareagency collaborate with the family network does however vary and there is definitelyroom for improvement.Information and the quality of the relation between case worker and parent appear tobe of vital importance for good cooperation. The case worker has a key role inproviding competence-promoting supports, and the recognition of parents and theirexperiences and opinions regarding what are useful supports, is of vital importance.One can hardly provide competence-promoting support if one is not sufficiently awareof how parents themselves understand their difficulties and needs.Analysis of cases to the County Social Welfare Tribunals concerns custody, but alsoappeals on earlier rulings. We have only analysed cases involving parents withcognitive difficulties. However, in many cases the parents are described as havingmore complex difficulties, such as cognitive difficulties and mental health issues. It isnot uncommon that one parent has cognitive difficulties and the other mental healthdifficulties or addiction problems. Problems related to living conditions, such ashousing or economy, is typical, and also a social network with few resources.Our analysis does not replicate the finding in international literature that cognitivedifficulties in itself is an argument for taking over custody, except for one specificpoint: Cognitive difficulties is an argument for doubt regarding the potential forchange by less intrusive interventions such as counselling or training, Thus, takingcustody becomes more likely. In the written proceedings from the tribunals, there tendto be lengthy descriptions of the childhood and adolescence of the parents, whichfrequently has been difficult, and also how parents cope with the parenting tasks. Itvaries to what extent consequences for the psychological development of the child isdiscussed. In some cases there are lengthy discussions but a more typical pattern isgeneral descriptions of the needs of children and the limitations of the parent(s). Thedescriptions of earlier supports to the families are also rather general. Counselling andguidance is reported, but without any clues to whether this counselling was adjusted tothe concrete needs of this parent. Social networks is not much attended and the reasonfor this appears to be that in most cases, the networks are weak or with few resources.There is also reason to point out that the voice of parents, and also the point of view ofthe children, is very limited parts of the written documentation from the proceedings.xviii