A Well Connected Team

In the Team Around the Worker approach, the 'key' worker becomes a very important person in the network (as they have the epistemic trust relationship with the child/young person/family). Remember the 'key' worker doesn't mean the 'lead professional'. It means that person is 'key in the mind' of the person being helped, the person who 'gets me'. 

The 'key' worker in this situation will need the support of others to help them sustain their capacity to mentalize about and within this relationship. This is because being the 'key worker' can be a very intense experience, and mentalizing might go offline because of that.

This is where the well-connected team idea comes in.

The people in a well-connected team are the people around the keyworker. They might be members of the workers 'home team'. Those workers might not be working directly with the family, but their role is to support their colleague to think, reflect and support their mentalizing.

The people in the well-connected team might also be professionals in the wider network around the family. For example, the employment coach helping the family support worker to think with the parent about employment; the psychologist helping the youth worker to think with the young person about their big emotions etc.

In both cases, it's important that the team 'hold the rope' of the key worker. This means the worker feels held and contained as they navigate the work and the relationship. Imagine the key worker as a climber, making their way up the mountain. To do this safely and to keep well, someone has to have their rope: 

Ripples in a Pond

Another key role for the team around the worker is to stay 'on the edge of the pond' . This is so they can help the key worker, so in turn they can stay helpful to the child, young person, parent or family.

Sometimes, because of the challenges and intensity of the work, a key worker can feel like they have 'dived into the pond' . The pond might often be a problem, a dilemma or an emergency. Our mentalizing has gone offline and we might feel dysregulated, anxious and unsure.

The well connected team will stay on the 'edge of the pond' to help their colleague or network partner to find their way out, not dive in with them. The team is 'further away' from the emotion of a situation (like the ripples in a pond), and so they can help their colleague to regulate, relate and begin to mentalize again. 

Whilst ripples in a pond is an analogy, it might be a helpful way of thinking about how teams help each other and 'hold each others ropes'. The well-connected team is really important to help us keep safe and well in the work, and to make sure we can keep being helpful to the child, young person or family.