Eigen Kracht-conferentie, een democratisch besluitvormingsproces

Summary

Family Group Conferences, a Democratic Decision Making Process

Over ten years' experience with the  Family Group Conference decision making model in the Netherlands has shown that when the network around people is widened and is appealed to for their abilities and capacities, major change can occur in help and care. Participants derive pride from the plan they have developed within their own network, committing themselves to solving problems that touch them and their near ones.  The key is that they can keep control over their own lives. Authority being taken instead of being given is strengthening in itself.

Family Group Conferences are an answer to compartmentalized structures of services and authorities where care professionals sometimes work separately from each other. Mobilizing the referred person's  network is not a matter of course, nor is the change towards a more resilient society. Activating this resilience should become the core task of the professional, where professionalism is measured against the increase of mutual involvement instead of the number of applied interventions. This requires that professionals change their perspective: they must let go of their control concerning citizens and the problems in their lives. This implies more than just pointing and demanding that people take more responsibility, which the authorities in these financially tight times are more and more often guilty of.  Prior to this the authorities must return control to their citizens in the knowledge that people will take their responsibility when they are given control.