1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«In this chapter, we will focus primarily on consultation with youth protection and family services, law enforcement agencies and the judicial system. […] We begin with a description of how the context of migration may fuel family conflicts around identity and belonging. This is followed by discussion of a key area of intercultural conflict for migrant families, the role of physical discipline in childrearing. We then explore how some migratory trajectories may be associated with specific challenges for family relations. We examine, in particular, some of the mental health issues related to family separation and reunification which may lead to involvement with youth protection or legal institutions. Next, we consider issues of domestic violence or intimate partner violence, which are highly challenging for clinicians as well as the legal system.» (p. 270)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«Cultural consultation can assist professionals and administrators in social service and legal systems in understanding issues among their clients related to social inequalities during migration and resettlement. The cultural consultant’s double alliance with the family and with the child protection and legal services actors can clarify the difficulties at hand and help all involved to better understand the complexity of family and institutional situations. Agencies as well as families and communities can use cultural consultation to promote trust, facilitate negotiation and find practical solutions. These solutions may involve working through perceptions that institutions are allied with forces in the host society that have inflicted violence on the family. Negotiating meaning and finding compromises not only create the possibility of restoring some power to the family, but expands the space for dialogue between families and institutions (Hassan et al., 2012). The process of listening and recognition inherent in cultural consultation can help reduce the feelings of threat, powerlessness and mistrust that families often experience in interactions with youth protection or legal systems. By promoting the alliance with CPS [Child Protection Service] workers, who sometimes feel threatened by the family and by their institution’s often punitive responses to any questioning of the standardized intervention approach, the cultural consultant validates the insights and clinical intuitions of workers. This process works towards advancing a more complex understanding of the family’s situation.» (p. 286-287)