THE SOLIHULL APPROACH RESOURCE PACK

by Hazel Douglas

THE SOLIHULL NHS PRIMARY CARE TRUST  (2001) ISBN 0954079507

This is a very useful resource pack, highly recommended to anyone working in the field of primary care with parents, their babies and young children.  It is clearly written, thoughtfully constructed and well-equipped with a wide range of resource sheets.  It is informative and practical and has, in fact, stood the test of usage - having evolved from a series of project groups of health visitors in Solihull over a period of three or four years. In this very process it has proven its value by increasing job satisfaction, confidence and effectiveness.

At the centre of the enterprise has been its much welcomed development of a theoretical blend of psychodynamic and behavioural perspectives.  The key components of its conceptual model are those of containment, reciprocity and behavioural management.  'Containment' draws its stimulus from psychoanalytic insights into the importance of feelings being acknowledged and held in mind. 'Reciprocity' conjures up much of the extraordinary rhythm and aliveness that child development researchers have shown us to be so integral to early positive mother-child interactions. Behaviour management well-rooted in behavioural science provides much needed clarity and direction to our work.  All three are intertwined in the Solihull Approach, with perhaps the foremost emphasis being placed on containment of parental anxieties - this is seen to free parents to think and reflect, and in turn to make more positive use of behavioural advice.

An important virtue of this resource pack resides in its advocacy of a broad-based assessment of everyday problems.  Health visitors are encouraged to look around and beyond the narrowly defined or presented problem, to take account of the history of the child's birth and early life in the context of its family, and to allow themselves, as practitioners, to feel something of the tension and anxiety of the parents in bringing up their children.

Various scenarios are given of parents having problems with their children's' sleeping, eating, toileting and behavioural problems; in each there is an illustration of parents emerging from their anguish or confusion better able to listen to and see their child from a different perspective, not least of all the child's.  When it comes down to it, it seems that a great deal depends on how far health visitors and others are 'interested in the story' of the parent and how far they have the capacity and 'the patience to let it emerge'.

PETER WILSON

Peter Wilson is a child psychotherapist and director of YoungMinds