Working with Denied Child Abuse: the Resolutions Approach : The Resolutions Approach

• How can professionals build constructive relationships with families where the parents dispute professional allegations of serious child abuse?
• How can meaningful safety for children be created in these families?
• How can professionals work together constructively in such cases?

Situations where parents refute child abuse allegations made against them are often deemed to be impossible or untreatable by statutory and treatment professionals. These cases can consume enormous amounts of professional time and energy and frequently become bogged down by ongoing professional-family mistrust and dispute. Often, the decision to close such cases comes about not because the children are safe, but rather because the professionalsrun out of ideas, time and energy.

Working with 'Denied' Child Abuse presents an innovative, safety-focused, partnership-based, model called Resolutions, which provides an alternative approach for responding rigourously and creatively to such cases. It describes each stage of this practical model and demonstrates the approach through many case examples from therapists, statutory social workers and other professionals working in Europe, North America and Australasia. The book is key reading for legal, health and social care professionals working in the area of child protection.

Andrew Turnell is an Independent Child Protection Consultant at Resolutions Consultancy, Perth, Australia.

Susie Essex is Consultant Family Therapist for North Bristol CAMHS.