Dr Simon Kennedy – “A more nuanced approach”, structured professional judgment in Family Reports

Dr Simon Kennedy – “A more nuanced approach”, structured professional judgment in Family Reports

 

Dr Simon Kennedy https://www.psychologycamberwell.com/dr-simon-kennedy

At the Pacifica Congress Conference live in Hobart 2023 www.pacificacongress.org

 

The Inside Family Law Podcast is hosted by Zoe Durand at Mediation Answers www.mediationanswers.com.au in partnership with Lawyer Magic and ArtWork.

 

• From assessment to inference. The difficult part of reports is making recommendations.
• Making recommendations is a quantum leap.
• 22 major factors from literature and clinical practice that are central to making recommendations
• Assessing in structured professional judgment what the factors are.
• Factors may include age, attachment relationship, family dysfunction, disability of a child, practical factors (such as travel distance), communication between the parents etc.
• Weight the factors.
• Each family is slightly different.
• Movement away from formulaic recommendations. I.e. “under age 4, x nights per fortnight etc”.
• Need to assess the family and children’s needs.
• Structured professional judgment to guide assessment and decision making.
• Nuanced approach that addresses a matrix of factors
• Benefits of children spending time with both parents
• One of the major controversies is age. We also need to take into account all the factors.
• Changes in family law over time: role of fathers has evolved.
• Covid has led to flexible work arrangements and changes in parenting arrangements.
• Benefit to children of both parents sharing their care.
• Current problems: children on devices
• Review of family reports
• Shortage of therapeutic treatment
• Protection for practitioners in family law (lack of enough family report writers).