The FOCUS Family Resilience Program: An Innovative Family Intervention for Trauma and Loss

• Published in: Family process Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 647 - 659
• Main Author: Saltzman, William R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-12-2016
• Subjects: Adult; Alienation; Armed forces; Brief interventions; Child; Children; Communication; Convergence; Families & family life; Family counseling; Family Resilience; Family Therapy; Family Therapy - methods; Female; Humans; Intervention; Life Change Events; Loss; Male; Meaning; Medical schools; Medical Trauma; Medicine; Misattributions; Narrative; Narrative Therapy; Narratives; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Perspective taking; Psychological distress; Psychological trauma; Psychology, Child; Relatives; Resilience; Resilience, Psychological; Skills; Stress, Psychological - therapy; Structured approach; Teams; Trauma; Traumatic life events; Working parents; Family Therapy; Medical Trauma; Family Resilience; Narrative; Trauma; Loss
• ISSN: 0014-7370; 1545-5300
• DOI: 10.1111/famp.12250

This article describes the core principles and components of the FOCUS Program, a brief intervention for families contending with single or multiple trauma or loss events. It has been administered nationally to thousands of military family members since 2008 and has been implemented in a wide range of civilian community, medical, clinical, and school settings. Developed by a team from the UCLA and Harvard Medical Schools, the FOCUS Program provides a structured approach for joining with traditional and nontraditional families, crafting shared goals, and then working with parents, children, and the entire family to build communication, make meaning out of traumatic experiences, and practice specific skills that support family resilience. Through a narrative sharing process, each family member tells his or her story and constructs a timeline that graphically captures the experience and provides a platform for family discussions on points of convergence and divergence. This narrative sharing process is first done with the parents and then the children and then the family as a whole. The aim is to build perspective‐taking skills and mutual understanding, to reduce distortions and misattributions, and to bridge estrangement between family members. Previous studies have confirmed that families participating in this brief program report reductions in distress and symptomatic behaviors for both parents and children and increases in child pro‐social behaviors and family resilient processes.
En este artículo se describen los principios y los componentes fundamentales del programa FOCUS, una breve intervención para las familias que luchan contra una o varias circunstancias de trauma o pérdida. Dicho programa se ha suministrado a nivel nacional a miles de familiares de militares desde 2008, y se ha puesto en práctica en una amplia variedad de entornos civiles comunitarios, médicos, clínicos y escolares. Desarrollado por un equipo de las facultades de medicina de la UCLA y de Harvard, el programa FOCUS ofrece un enfoque estructurado para reunirse con familias tradicionales y no tradicionales, fijar objetivos comunes, y luego trabajar con los padres, los niños y toda la familia para facilitar la comunicación, dar sentido a las experiencias traumatizantes, y practicar habilidades específicas que estimulen la resiliencia familiar. A través de un proceso de intercambio de relatos, cada familiar cuenta su historia y construye una cronología que plasma gráficamente la experiencia y brinda una plataforma para charlas familiares sobre puntos de convergencia y divergencia. Este proceso de intercambio de relatos se realiza primero con los padres, luego con los niños y finalmente con toda la familia. La finalidad es fortalecer las habilidades de adopción de puntos de vista y la comprensión mutua, disminuir las distorsiones y las atribuciones erradas, y acercar a los familiares distanciados. Estudios previos han confirmado que las familias que participan en este breve programa informan disminuciones de la angustia y de los comportamientos sintomáticos en ambos padres y en los niños, así como mejoras en las conductas prosociales de los niños y en los procesos de resiliencia familiar.
本文描述了FOCUS 项目的核心原则和组成部分。FOCUS是一个简短的针对面临单个或多重创伤或失去经历家庭的干预项目。从2008年其该项目在全国范围内应用于上千个军人家庭,并广泛在平民社区,医疗,临床和学校背景下得到实施。FOCUS项目由UCLA和哈佛医学院的一个小组发展起来,为联合传统和非传统家庭,制定共同目标,与家长,儿童以及整个家庭一起建立沟通渠道,理解创伤经历,并且实践支持家庭复原力的特定技巧提供了结构化方案。通过一个叙事分享过程,每个家庭成员讲述他/她的故事并构建一个时间轴来形象的捕捉其经历并为针对融合和分歧的家庭讨论提供平台。该叙事分享过程首先由家长完成,其次由孩子完成,最后由家庭整体完成。其目标是构建视角技能和相互理解,减少歪曲和错误归属,并在疏远的家庭成员之间架起桥梁。之前的研究已经证实参与该简短项目的家庭其家长和孩子的困扰以及症状行为都有所减轻,而其孩子的亲社会性和家庭复原力过程有所增强。