SAL Consulting’s Liz Sanders spoke at ACWA’s recent Assessing Parental Capacity and Working with Parents Forum about the use of the Attachment Style Interview (ASI) in complex parenting capacity assessments, and moves the agency is undertaking to introduce this evidence-based tool into Australia.
Already widely used in Europe, SAL Consulting and Middlesex University are working in partnership to introduce the ASI locally. Professor Antonia Bifulco and her Middlesex University colleague Catherine Jacobs recently spent a week with the SAL Consulting team sharing their expertise and training 16 of their consultants to administer the adult ASI, which offers an assessment of high-risk young people. SAL Consulting will be conducting further training for this adolescent version in August.
Professor Bifulco and her team were responsible for developing the ASI in the late 1990s and have continued to adapt it to ensure relevance to today’s out-of-home care and child protection climate. The ASI has proved to be effective cross culturally and SAL Consulting looks forward to an evaluation of its relevance within Aboriginal populations.
From early 2019 SAL Consulting will be training practitioners from across the government and non-government sectors in using the ASI within their services. It will be of particular benefit in working with families towards preservation, reunification and in identifying support needs in fostering, residential care, guardianship and adoption.
As part of the roll-out of the ASI in Australia, SAL Consulting is establishing a Community of Practice that will provide support to newly trained practitioners, will enable sharing of knowledge and offer a platform to explore strategies and practice that will focus on developing more positive attachment styles.
For further information and to refer someone for an assessment please contact Liz Sanders on 0429 364 817 or asi@salconsulting.com.au
Liz’s ASI presentation, as well as others made at ACWA’s Assessing Parental Capacity and Working with Families Forum, are now available on our website.
Picture: Liz Sanders presenting at ACWA’s Best Practice Unit forum.