Role for Social Workers in Collaborative Family Law
During the last decade, an innovative approach to divorce, which avoids court proceedings altogether, has been providing a new kind of role for social workers. Instead of the traditional adversarial system, in which each side either wins or loses, Collaborative Family Law, or CFL, focuses on a teamwork approach, in which the parties have legal support, but settle between themselves.
Additional Professionals Needed
During the process of CFL, each of the parties is represented by a legal counsel who is specially trained in this aspect of law. However, often the need arises for additional professionals, to support the process and act as a resource. In particular, the professionals most often required are divorce coaches, and child specialists.
A divorce coach in traditional law works with one of the parties to help him or her gain the best advantage in court. In CFL, on the other hand, the divorce coach will work with the parties to help them clarify their goals. The idea is to enable them to work through their emotional issues, so that they can be as objective and reasonable as possible throughout the process.
The child specialist is the person who works closely with the children in the case. The specialist will get to know the children, and find out their views and feelings. The aim is to help develop a child care plan that will best meet the needs of the children following the divorce.
Social Workers Could Fill These Roles
There are many reasons to believe that a social worker would be the ideal professional to fill either of these roles. One reason is that both roles involve a number of possible pitfalls — for instance, the support provided by the divorce coach could risk turning into over-identification. The child specialist can run into the problem of how far to respect the children’s confidentiality.
How Social Workers Could Make a Difference
The training and background in family work means that a social worker would be best placed to overcome these risks. Instead of two separate professionals, it could be possible to assign a single worker, perhaps with the title of Family Divorce Consultant. The specific aim would be to help the whole family make the transition to the post-divorce structure, while keeping relationships intact.
An experienced family law firm, such as Fine & Associates, is also needed to make the process work well. They should be looking to recruit social work professionals who are trained in systems theory, and who have a good background in family work, including custody and access, and child development. Collaborative Family Law can revolutionise children’s experience in divorce, and social workers could be the right people to make it happen.
Do you require a divorce lawyer in Toronto? Fine & Associates deals with family law every single day. Let us handle your case. You will notice the difference.