Knocking Down the Silos – Institute for Community and Family Resilience

I have been thinking about how important it is to break barriers when talking about many things. Today I am stuck on breaking barriers to accessing services that folks need to get help with all kinds of economic as well as socio-emotional needs. And in my thought processes, I have been considering that the issue is not only one’s fear or reticence to share their struggles (the client that is), but the barriers put up by the providers of services. And in sorting through this, I am not thinking about client discrimination, but rather about how the various entities that provide services are seemingly unwilling to share with one another their specialties and their availability and yes even…resources for funding! We tend to build and reside in professional silos and seemingly are unwilling to share resources and expertise. No one practitioner, nor one ingle organization can provide services for all of those folks in our community who are struggling. It is imperative, and in my opinion, the kind thing to do, to share information amongst all service providers so that folks can get the help they need and seek.

About Author

Elaine Spicer

I have been a social worker for 31 years. My work has been with families and children first in the area of Child Protective Services and then as a therapist working with the same population. I have worked with divorcing and divorced parents teaching co-parenting techniques, supervised therapists and have been a social worker for emotionally challenged children and adolescents in an inner city school system. About 7 years ago I was introduced to the work of Bryan Post and, as a friend and colleague said at the time…I went Post-al. All of my previous assumptions and indeed my work using behavioral interventions, got pushed aside. And along came the realization that none of the interventions, meant to change behaviors, had anything in common with helping children heal from the trauma they had experienced. My best work these days is as a coach/consultant for parents, other caregivers, and teachers. The services I provide are parent education, coaching, consulting and supervising. I am the mother of five adult children and grandmother to five. I am both a bio mom and an adoptive mom.

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