Page 17 - Meeting with Children Manual
P. 17

Section 1

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                    Note that these cases can still involve  outbursts of mutual  strong emotion,
                    positionality,  and  difficult negotiations.  However,  the parents  demonstrate a
                    willingness to engage with the narratives of the other parent, and to try to achieve
                    an  outcome that  is agreeable to the whole family. Generally,  these parents are
                    willing to abide by ground rules.

                    The voices of children often raise unexpected questions for parents. Facilitation of a
                    parent child meeting can be very effective for Green cases.

                    Implications for ADR and Child Meetings
                    Yellow cases make up a significant proportion of the cases that most practitioners
                    handle. It is not unusual that our clients describe some degree of complexity in the
                    past, and yet there is no suggestion that these cases are not appropriate for ADR.

                    Some Yellow cases lend themselves well to traditional facilitative mediation models,
                    while others require more evaluative or settlement focused approaches. The use of
                    more therapeutic models of mediation is possible  providing the parents
                    demonstrate a reflective capacity.

                    Meeting the children in these families  can be beneficial for both parents and
                    children.  The  children may be experiencing high levels of conflict between their
                    parents and may feel triangulated/caught in the middle between their parents.

                    The Yellow nature of the case may mean that Child Centred Levels 2, 3 or 4 may be
                    available depending on  the  Parent Readiness Scale  and the  Child and Youth
                    Readiness Scale.

                    Implications for ADR and Child Meetings
                    While traditional models of family mediation may not be appropriate, new models
                    of trauma informed mediation or  parenting coordination, can be very effective
                    (Graham and Watson 2016).  These models focus on containing the discourses of the
                    parties, identifying dysregulation and intervening to return calm to the ADR space.
                    There is an increase in the use of non-face-to-face processes, and an increase the
                    focus on short term agreements.

                    The inclusion of child meetings is important in Orange cases.  However, there is an
                    increased risk that parents may attempt to influence what children say, and parents
                    may seek to cross examine their children about what was said during the meeting.

                    Parent and child inoculation is therefore more important in these cases.  Further
                    management of the expectations of Orange risk case parents is important so that
                    parents are aware that feedback may be quite limited.

                    Orange risk cases feedback can include normalised recommendations about
                    referrals of children to support services, and generalised feedback about children at
                    this age and stage of development (Child Centred Model Level 1 and possibly Level
                    2).  More feedback may be possible as parents move towards the Yellow risk zone.


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