Fathers, Children, Family & Community
A Programming Manual for Social Workers, Parent Educators and Child Advocates
by Guy Thisdelle
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This is a book written by a well-known father-friendly counsellor in Vancouver, BC and published by a smaller, local Canadian publisher in Ottawa. This is an indication of how few publishers really care about men/fathers/boys counselling or establishing programs.
The book is meant as a programming book for a father support program called "Healthy Start - A Men's Division" and a child-inclusive program called the "Kid's Turn Program" adapted from other existing program. These are inner/outer awareness programs to assist fathers who are in difficult times and may have problems dealing with their parental responsibilities (if it sounds like divorce or separation are primary, you are right). The book deals with a number of therapy models in explaining the specific models chosen here.
In order to provide material for the program. the book is chocked full of important empirical data that would form the basis of discussion to provide awareness of both what the needs of children are, what the needs of parents are, and what the societal difficulties are in achieving this. The material is kept brief, but it is compelling. I have no doubt that many interesting discussions came out of the material. Some of the material, unfortunately, comes from private or non-publicly available sources -- unfortunate because one always likes to cross reference and check such compelling stats. However, the bulk of the material is from governmental or other easily accessed sources.
Not surprisingly, the book strongly supports the concept of both parents being actively involved with their children on all levels both before and after any separation. It is hard to argue with that.
As I siad the publisher is small, so to order you need to phone, fax or mail in the form for the book. A PDF file containing an order form for the book is included below.
B.