Family Group Conferencing

All families face challenges from time to time and sometimes need help to work through them.

A family group conference meeting is a way of getting your family together to make some decisions and find a way forward.

When a family group conference meeting could help

In many situations including:

• when a family member is at risk due to their level of dementia.
• when decisions need to be made about how a family member with a diagnosis of dementia can be supported to retain the best quality of life possible.
• when someone needs help to live their life as safely and as independently as possible.

What makes a family group conference meeting different

This is your meeting. You and your family make the decisions that affect your lives, supported by appropriate agencies.

You will be given all the information you need to help you decide what would work best for your family and what help you need from others, if any.

An independent co-ordinator will work with you to help you throughout the process.

How the meeting is arranged

An independent co-ordinator will visit you to explain how the family group conference works and help you to decide who should be invited and when and where the meeting will be held.

The co-ordinator will prepare everyone for the meeting and try to ensure that everyone can attend and have their views heard.

What next

For the plan to succeed everyone needs to work together. The co-ordinator will make sure everyone gets a copy of your plan and will arrange a follow-up meeting as put in the plan.

At the follow-up meeting everyone comes back together to check that the plan is working and decide if anything else needs to be done.

Remember...

A Family Group Conference is not a magic wand!

Everyone needs to work together to make the plan work and help create better outcomes for your family.

If you have any questions, please contact the Social Work Department.