Structural and functional analysis of cases of family treatment treated in the public social services system

Abstract

The purpose of this work has been to analyze, from a structural and functional approach, the families at risk or unprotected by the Family Treatment Teams, inserted in the Public System of Social Services. For this purpose, qualitative research methods and techniques have been used on 26 interdisciplinary reports generated in the most representative cases of family intervention. Significant results have been obtained describing family structures, life-cycle adaptation, pattern repetition across generations, life events and family functioning, and linked patterns. The data reveal that these are families with common problems related mainly to the behaviour of minors and the coverage of basic needs. Negligence is the central element in this type of families as well as the maladjustment to the life cycle of the family system. All this from patterns of repetition linking dysfunctional.