Disorganized families and the helping professions: ‘who's in charge of what?’

Disorganized families fail to define their executive and caretaking structure, resulting in multiple social and emotional problems. They tend to be referred to a Child and Family Psychiatric Clinic in crisis and with a wide network of professional workers already involved. The professionals' rôle often can be seen as ‘supplementing’ apparent functional deficiencies in the family. Work with disorganized families can be very demanding on professional time and emotional energy but is facilitated by everyone knowing ‘who's in charge of what’ decisions in the family's professional network. A case is presented to suggest that the Clinic's initial aim should be to clarify the responsibilities and role of each member of the professional network, and then of the structure and organization in the family. Joint family‐professional network meetings can help to achieve these aims.