Residential Family Treatment: A creative alternative in child protection work

The maintenance of the physical and emotional safety of children about to be returned to their families following serious abuse is a complex and significant problem. This paper describes a treatment offered to such families which makes use of a residential setting, and which involved intensive work over the period of a week. This approach was cost effective, allowed for greater creativity by child protection workers, and impacted significantly on the lives of the families. This paper offers a philosophical as well as practical framework for treating at risk families in which a child is about to be returned.