There is very little evidence that, in initiatives to protect children in families in the Focus Group, planners in the Pillars acknowledge that Systems Theory has any relevance at all, or else they are closed to its findings and implications.
The reason for this (I believe anyway) is that a full acknowledgment and appreciation of systems theory reveals uncomfortable truths, or may challenge our preconceptions of how the world should be, our sense of entitlement, our power base, and our priorities in respect of what we resource and what we ignore.
So, prerequisites for looking at the world of supporting children in deep distress systemically are:
1. A type of honesty that may upset us.
2. Clarity of thought to identify myth……….and…….
3. The moral courage to challenge myth when it is identified.
I do not know to what extent systems theory is taught in social science or social care courses in third level colleges (it probably is) but from my observations I would say that its application in the field of work is minimal, or at least is certainly in its infancy.
(I discuss why theory struggles to find its way into practice in the helping people in distress sphere in the Chapters on the Family Support Shamrock and again in Research and Development).
In psychotherapy, with which I am more familiar (certainly in the work of Carl Rogers and contemporaries in Person Centered Therapy which I will describe in the Chapter on Modalities) its principles are a little more advanced – in particular in respect of the effects on the family system.
Perhaps this website will assist in some small way towards systems theory being acknowledged, appreciated and taken seriously in child protection and community work.
I would be delighted if it did – and I believe that it would be a great leap forward if it was!