Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace.
- Date:
- [1983], ©1983
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[222] FAMILY WELLNESS THROUGH EDUCATION the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction share the common and exceptional feature of including components directed specifically to relationships with the families of students among other interpersonal components. Through the use of role-playing and audio¬ visual teaching materials, they create family-like situations that facilitate transfer to the home settings. A unique skills-training program has been developed by Seidenberg for training siblings to communicate and solve problems in relation to each other. Together, older and younger sibling pairs attending the same school learn in the school setting how to interact at home through the use of role-playing and training exercises. Programs for families in transition have found their way into secondary schools and even elementary schools in some enlightened communities. These programs are somewhat different than those directed toward the development of relationships and instrumental abilities in the intact family. They presume that a remarriage has taken place due to death or divorce and that the new relationships will be complicated by grief and/or continued interaction with the original family. Consistent with the understanding that this is not exclusively a prevention effort is the fact that the reported programs are conducted by guidance counselors or other mental health personnel as opposed to teachers. Social and/or sports activities are sometimes included creating a peer group and an atmosphere of normality about their family situations for the youngsters. Such programming in the school day appears to represent a genuine out-reach effort on the part of the schools to meet a need of families. Such is the case also with programs designed to help children deal with separation and grief. While, again, these efforts might be classified as secondary rather than primary prevention, it is just as legitimate to conceptualize them as creating wellness in the newly changed family grouping. Programs with a Future Family Orientation There are many marriage preparation courses in high schools teaching young people about the marriage relationship along with consideration of instrumental marital behaviors (e.g., finances and housing). While many of these are essentially cognitive in their approach, unique exercises are often introduced to make the courses experiential and dynamic. Mock weddings, family budgets, and the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18037604_0225.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
