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the factors giving rise to the difficult personal relationships exhibited by problem
families and this aspect is receiving increasing emphasis in pre-service and in-service
staff training and education schemes. A point is often reached beyond which further
improvements in a family situation can only be effected if the more deep-seated reasons
for the family's failings can be ascertained and dealt with constructively and sympathetically.
In many instances the field worker will find that the progress being made comes
to an abrupt halt for no apparent reason: then she must try a fresh line and not be disappointed
at her temporary setback. Indeed, no single technique can succeed, for what
may be a good plan for one family may only alienate another.
Society must support and protect its weaker members but it would not be proper
to set a premium on anti-social behaviour by offering to problem families special
advantages and benefits which are denied to the other and stable members of the
community. Seen in perspective against the background of social advance in the last
half-century, problem families are but a small residual part of what was many years
ago a grave social evil, and the continuing improvements in the education, health and
welfare services of this country would seem to promise that in time the number of
these families will diminish still further. It cannot be denied that the children of today
enjoy greater advantages than did their parents and grandparents, and our social services,
being as they are amongst the best in the world, will afford to the generations to come
even greater possibilities for development in all spheres of human activity. It is to this
end—the constant improvement of existing conditions and the creation of wider
opportunities for the future—that all concerned in the social and welfare services
constantly strive.
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