Building Parent-Professional Partnerships

Partnerships Require Sharing POWER!

Sharing information and authority is not always easy for professionals. Professionals have been trained to help and they may see sharing decision making as “overloading” the family. Professionals may also see sharing as taking away some of their power to make decisions they feel are best for the family. A partnership does not mean a professional tells a family what to do and a partnership does not mean that a family dictates to the professional. When creating partnerships, a professional’s readiness to value strengths, respect cultural differences and take an “equal” role with parents depends on the professional’s capacity to manage personal power needs. Likewise, a family’s responsibility is to clarify family needs, negotiate these needs and manage personal power.

A partnership recognizes and values each partner’s resources, knowledge and experience. These all carry a certain amount of power, and power has a direct effect on decisions. Good partnerships always assure power is shared.

Webster’s Partnership – 1. “A cooperative relationship between two or more people that are involved in or share the same activity.”

Parents’ power is their knowledge of their child and their knowledge and understanding of how the system works.

Professionals’ power is their expertise in their particular field and their knowledge of the system in which they work.

Shared power exists when parents and professionals trust that combining their competence and authority pushes them go beyond their individual limits and to better make decisions together. Parents and professionals sharing power is a critical ingredient in sincere partnerships.

A Good Partnership Involves:

... TRUST

... SHARING

... COOPERATION

Cornerstones of fruitful partnerships:

• Start with respect
• Build and deepen over time
• Rely on trust
• Change over time and adapt to new circumstances

Characteristics of Skilled Partners:

A skilled partner:

• Is trustworthy
• Is an attentive listener
• Values and respects individuals and their families
• Is reliable, courteous, on time and dependable
• Respects privacy
• Respects confidential information
• Is knowledgeable and stays current with new information

Characteristics of Strong Partnerships:

• Partners assume each is working in good faith
• Partners can trust each other to say what they mean and mean what they say
• Partners are responsive to change, they are adaptable
• Partners can withstand people coming and going
• Partners strengthen and build off each other for the best possible outcomes
• Partners accept free-flowing ideas without judgments
• Partners are able to move beyond the “baggage” of past bad experiences
• Partners share the lead

Partnerships and trust strengthen over time. We build relationships with professionals involved with our family member’s life just as we build a relationship with a new neighbor, that is, we reveal details about our own lives and exchange opinions. Respect and confidence require time to unfold. They are the product of work with a willingness to keep an open mind and try new approaches. A mature partnership built on trust has the following elements:

• Communication is open and ideas are exchanged
• Problem solving involves all partners
• Planning is done in a respectful way
• Adaptability
• Creativity and inventiveness are accepted and encouraged

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