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Family Assessment: At the Interface of Nature and Nurture Stands the Family

Family Assessment: At the Interface of Nature and Nurture Stands the Family
photo by: nyki_m
By Andrew Roffman, LCSW
NYU Child Study Center

A child's environment

"A family is to a child as water is to a fish."

The 'nurturing system' that is the family is the most basic, most central context for a child's well-being and development. The emotional, caring surrounding that a family provides for a child is probably the single most important factor in that child's life. Nurturing systems, whether we call them families or not, come in all shapes and sizes and have a wonderful flexible variety as to the way they can work towards the common goal of the welfare of children. This idea is certainly not a new one; in many respects it has become a taken-for-granted assumption. Yet families who bring their child to a mental health professional often approach that event with a mixture of feelings. Will they feel welcomed, helped, criticized, even blamed? The psychiatric evaluation process should ideally be a family-friendly one. Since families are the most important context for the child, they should be welcomed and actively involved in the evaluation process as collaborators in a joint endeavor to create the best treatment approach for their child.

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