The family development approach : A program for coping with transitional crises

The following advantages have emerged from this experience. First, the program offter a meaningful supplement or alternative to traditional methods od preparation for marriage. Second, groups have been conducted in a number of differentsettings-churches, university continuing education divisions, cmmunity centers-since the programs educational orientation frees it from exclusive use in therapeutic settings. Trird, as experience was gained with premarital groups, the UNITE program was extended to couples at other stages (during marriage or in anticipation of remarriage) and found to be beneficial. UNITE is a structured, educational program for couples which attempts to do three things: first, increase each partners awareness of self and his contribution to interaction within significant relaionshisp; second, increase each partners skill in effetively expressing this own self-information-that is, making this self-awareness available to his or her partner; and third, enhance each partners sense of choice within the relationship for maintaining or changing ways of relating in mutually satisfying ways (AU)

The warm - line : A primary preventive service for parents of young children

We have described a telephone "Warm-line" for parents of children under the age of 5 year as an example of a primary prevention unit in a Division of Child and Family Psychiatry in a mental Health Center. We have also included an example of a mental health checklist for parents and asserted our belief that it is time that mental health profesional take responsibility for guiding parents of very young children. WE believe that such preventive services as the Warm-Line can play a significant role in avoiding the mental health emergencies that often occur when immdiate help is not available to deal With crises in child development and parent-child relationships (AU)