It's often hard to figure out the best way to support a young person in relation to family difficulties. Helping the young person to become autonomous and to also maintain connections with family can be a big challenge for workers.
Family connectedness is a significant protective factor against a range of health-risk behaviours in adolescence. Young people with complex needs often need help to maintain family relationships, especially in times of conflict or hardship. Even when relationships with family are highly problematic, the links still exist and need to be recognised and validated in any interventions.
The Strong Bonds website offers useful information to help you support families and young people through hard times, so that you can keep making a difference to their health and well-being.
Strong Bonds is a project of Jesuit Social Services.
Jesuit Social Services works collaboratively with others to engage disadvantaged individuals, families and communities and the wider society to promote health and wellbeing and to address social exclusion.
We do this by forming relationships as a basis for effective, holistic interventions, by building social capital and by effecting social change through social policy, advocacy and research.
