ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Israel approached the Center for Research and Study of the Family with a specific request: “to visit families in the Northern Region and attempt to identify strategies which could ameliorate their position.” These families have historically been known to the Department of Social Services as “multiproblem,” “hard to reach,” “underorganized,” and so on. In several instances, the apparently insurmountable nature of the family problems encountered had led social workers to give up hope of ending the cycle of despair. It seemed that every effort to deal with these families, to provide them with support, or to intervene on their behalf had been “torpedoed” by the families themselves. Above all, none of the workers’ goals could be reached under the conditions that they found. Initial visits revealed poverty, illness, lack of adequate nutrition, and large outstanding debts, as well as neglect and abuse, total disorganization, lack of boundaries between family members, and despair. It appeared that every single facet of their lives was dysfunctional in one way or another. Indeed, health, personal hygiene, intellectual functioning, social and economic position, employment status, and standing in the community were all damaged or impaired.
