Book Review - PAIN, NORMALITY and the STRUGGLE for
CONGRUENCE
By: James P. Anglin
Disclaimer: This book review is my opinion of
the book. If you have a different opinion of the book that is great. I know I have loved
several movies and books that other reviewers have not liked and disliked movies and books
that receive great reviews. I think we all have. If you would like to submit your own
review, I may consider posting it. Otherwise feel free to share you reviews on the Forum.
Thanks.
If you are an administrator at a facility or looking to open a new
facility this would be an excellent book to read. It is basically a
summary of a 14 month study the author did of well functioning and not so
well functioning group homes in British Columbia, Canada. Though you
may consider texts from outside the US irrelevant to our system, you will be
very surprised at how similar the conditions, philosophies, practices are to
our system in the US. Additionally the conditions that make for a well
functioning program or facility are universal regardless of where the
program is located.
If you are a houseparent looking for a text to help you be a better
residential childcare worker, there are probably several others that are
better suited for that purpose. This book is more directed for program
managers and supervisors to help them create a program that works toward
what is best for the youth in care.
He points out that the program is going to be a reflection of director
good or bad all the way down to the children in care and uses his research
to make his point. I can concur that in my experience with several
programs that I have worked for or been associated with, that is true.
He also shows how staff training or lack there of has a serious effect on
how the youth in care are viewed and treated. And how the programs
with better trained staff were usually more effective at caring for and
helping the children. He also uses his research to show that there is
a very definite need for group homes in an era when many people are trying
to close them down.
Chapter topics include:
- Historical and contemporary issues in residential care for children
and youth.
- The staffed group home study; research method and implementation.
- A theoretical framework for understanding group home life and work
- Congruence in service of the children's best interest; the central
theme of group home life and work
- Creating and extrafamilial living environment: the overall task of a
group home
- Responding to pain and pain-based behavior; the major challenge for
staff
- Developing a sense of normality; the primary goal for residents
- Through the lens of the theoretical framework; a review of
selected residential child and youth care literature
- Implications for new directions in child and youth care policy
development, education, practice, and research.
Though the book provides valuable information, I must tell you that it is
not easy reading. You have to have a desire for the information to
want to keep reading. Additionally, to grasp much of the information
you might need to be very above average in intelligence or education, there
were several times I had to read and re-read to understand what he was
saying or to get the point of the topic. A few times he completely
lost me and some words I just blew off, because I didn't want to do the
research to figure out what they meant.
My favorite quote from the book is: "There is
nothing like poor practice to put good practice into perspective."
I think we all can relate to this on some level, and the author does a good
job of comparing the two.
This book has a copyright of 2002 so it is one of handful of current
writings about residential childcare.
Click here to see other books
OTHER BOOK REVIEWS:
Click Here
Click here to buy PAIN, NORMALITY and the STRUGGLE for CONGRUENCE from Amazon.com
|
