Early intervention with multi-risk families: The challenge of organizing and explaining a multifaceted process

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Title

PsycCRITIQUES

Department

Psychology

ISSN

1554-0138

Volume

51

Issue

32

DOI

10.1037/a0003329

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Abstract

Reviews the book, Early Intervention With Multi-Risk Families: An Integrative Approach by Sarah Landy and Rosanne Menna (see record 2006-03174-000). In this book the authors combine their many years of experience and expertise in interventions with multi-risk families to present a review of the available research coupled with their recommendations on intervention approaches. The authors' intent is to discuss the many complexities of working and succeeding with such families while detailing what they describe as an integrative theoretical approach to the subject. The stated audience for the book is any service provider who plays a role in interventions with multi-risk families. This is a fairly broad audience, which seems to ultimately limit the book's usefulness. Overall, this book presents several helpful and practical intervention strategies for working with multi-risk families but falls well short of being the 'go-to' guide for work with this population. Throughout the book, the reader will find multiple intervention strategies and helpful information on well-developed programs for accomplishing various tasks. Several of the discussions raise interesting points and help the reader to broaden his or her understanding of multi-risk families and to examine the issues from multiple perspectives. Much of this helpful and interesting information, however, gets lost in the length of the book. Moreover, the book's presentation style often appears to be more heaps of information and less a summary that brings various pieces together in an approachable, practical fashion. Finally, although the authors have presented the concept of their integrative theoretical approach, how the reader might implement this same approach is not clear. Thus, this book is likely to be best for those who are moderately to well versed in the field of interventions for multi-risk families and who are looking to expand some of their thinking and the variety of their intervention strategies.

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