TakeHomeMessages

10th April 2011
This refers to messages relayed by the IMP to the young person or their family, from members of the MetaTeam. Usually these will be from other KeyWorker 's not working directly with a young person, but sometimes they may come from specialists not directly in the AMBIT team but offering consultation. Most commonly Take Home Messages will be recorded from Case discussions, particularly those occurring in Team Meetings.

It is a powerful way of demonstrating to a young person or family that their struggles are being thought about carefully, and that there is a communicative and very 'live' team working in support of their KeyWorker. The young person and Family have an experience of (we hope) carefully mentalized input, that is offered to both them AND their KeyWorker, and can be a springboard for new areas of discussion.

To Record a Take Home Message, if you are using the manual as an ICR, use the button on the Sidebar at the right. This generates a new tiddler, already tagged as ClientNotes. The practitioner should record the message here, and remember to apply Tags for each Team members from whom this message comes.

What constitutes a good Take Home Message?

Brief

Not too wordy, keep it simple.

Always framed in "mentalizing" language

I.e. always tentative, hesitant, rather than presuming to have access to expert knowledge about private experiences. Tending to refer to inferences/hypotheses about mental states.

May be there to:

    1. Remind the young person of resiliencies or successes that have been overlooked
    2. To enquire about new directions where the team would like to encourage exploration
    3. To challenge unhelpful patterns of behaviour, whilst allowing the KeyWorker some freedom from being directly "to blame" for this (this needs to be done very carefully, bearing in mind the nature of the relationship with the KeyWorker, and the rest of the team. A challenging message would aim to be:
      1. Non-accusatory, but more "We were wondering if it made any sense to suggest..."
      2. Positioning itself as offering a 'third position' apart from the KeyWorker and young person; which they could then discuss between themselves.
      3. Never to be read as an ultimatum or threat, or as a simple criticism.