FAMILY RESILIENCE - THEORY AND CONCEPT APPLICATION IN SOCIAL WORK

The article deals with the concept of family resilience and the possibilities of its use in social work theory and practice. Family resilience is the process of confronting the stress source and the constructive adaptation of the family as a functional unit to the stressful situation or crisis. The key processes included in the family resilience concept are: the family belief system, family organisational models and communication processes within the family. The family resilience concept explains the family's potentials for surviving, recovering and developing its potentials after the experience of stress and crisis. The concept of family resilience also resulted in a new approach to working with families. It is oriented to family strengths and therefore named the family resilience approach. It represents the framework within which professional interventions in working with families are based on assessment of the existing family resilience potentials and on encouraging new family processes for strengthening family powers aimed at resolving the current problem and preventing the next crisis. The article also presents several theories of adaptation to stress, phases of creation and effects of family resilience as well as its functioning described through the Model of impact of family resilience on stress. The text is divided into three sections: the introduction to the resilience concept, the relationship of family resilience and the stress source, and the implementation of the family resilience approach by social workers in their work with families.