A time for differentiation. The use of a systems approach with adolescents in community-based agencies

Many social workers have found great difficulty in applying family therapy to the context of Social Services Departments. This article suggests some reasons why this is so and also looks at some of the ways that workers within Social Services can use a more broad based systems approach to exert a positive and effective influence both on the families they work with and the agency systems they work for. The involvement of social workers with adolescents provides an important focus for illustrating how this approach can be used successfully. These ideas were developed from the experience of the author as an unsuccessful family therapist within one local authority and a successful systemic social worker within another.