Developing a Parent-Professional Team Leadership Model in Group Work: Work with Families with Children Experiencing Behavioral and Emotional Problems‪.‬

Involving families in the development of appropriate interventions for children with serious emotional disturbances (SED) has been a goal of mental health systems of care models since the early 1980s (Osher, deFur, Nava, Spencer, & Toth-Dennis, 1999). Parents have been viewed as collaborators, advisers, advocates, and supports by professionals delivering care (Osher et al., 1999). Likewise, parents have often sought out groups to help cope more effectively with their children's behavioral and emotional problems (Bennett & Grimly, 2001; Fristad, Goldberg-Arnold, & Gavazzi, 2003; Orrell-Valente et al., 1999). Parent support groups have emerged as a way to enhance parent networking and advocacy on behalf of their children with special needs (O'Connor, 2002). In addition, professional-led groups for parents have also increased, with a focus on education and training (Pickett, Heller, & Cook, 1998). A more holistic approach to helping children with SED calls for the coalescing of these independent, but equally important types of groups. Enhancing parent-professional partnerships, therefore, has become a cornerstone of systems of care models of practice for helping youths with SED (Duchnowski, Kutash, & Friedman, 2002; Stroul & Friedman, 1986). Increasing parents' autonomy and decision making in setting treatment goals is one of the major outcomes of parent-professional partnerships (Friesen & Huff, 1996; Osher & Osher, 2002). Professionals engage parents in sharing responsibility, in developing goals, and in improving services for children with SED. The expectation has been that professionals and parents working together can achieve better outcomes for children and youths with SED (DeChillo, Koren, & Schultze, 1994; Osher & Osher). Brunet (1991) defined these new collaborations as "a process to reach goals that cannot be achieved acting singly" (p. 6).