The judicial system has tried for years to help high conflict families resolve problems around divorce. Families with abuse, drug usage, alienation, blocked access to visitation and other inappropriate and dangerous behaviors usually need extra monitoring. The courts have struggled to find effective ways to help these difficult families.
Currently there are judges, custody evaluators, guardians, divorce mediators, parent educators, counselors and more who try to see to it that the best interests of the children are being promoted when divorce happens. Even with this army of enforcers and helpers, some divorced parents slip through the cracks. As a result, the children suffer.
Most professionals involved with a family lack the authority, access or clinical skills needed to be effective. For example, a judge can order parents to therapy, but parents can drop out as soon as they hear something they don’t like. Mediation can break down. Guardians have some authority but since they are typically lawyers, they have few clinical skills to deal with problematic families.
In an effort to prevent more divorced couples from litigating when problems arise, another professional has been added to the legal mix. They are called Parent Coordinators. Parent Coordinators are typically specialized therapists who are given limited authority by the court to intervene with high conflict families. They can be assigned to a family before or after divorce, or years later if a family litigates again. Unlike guardians, they are available to a family for years.
The basic goal of a Parent Coordinator is to make sure court orders are enforced and parents have a workable parenting plan. Parents are assigned a Coordinator for six months to a year and can call on the Coordinator any time a parenting issue resurfaces. If a divorced parent decides to take more legal action, he/she must have at least two joint sessions with the Parent Coordinator prior to the action.
Parent Coordinators are usually trained therapists (often marriage and family therapists) but they do not do psychotherapy. Since their services are court ordered, parents must comply and work on problems. Parent Coordinators teach conflict resolution skills, look for ways to reduce child stress and make sure parents have access to their children. All of this is written in a specific document called a Parenting Plan.
In addition, Parent Coordinators can recommend services such as drug screens, parenting classes, therapy and more. They can modify visitation and charge parents for “no shows” or coming late to appointments.
The use of Parent Coordinators is a growing trend. Several states have employed these professionals with the hope that high conflict families can be educated, more effectively monitored, mediated without using court time, and compliant to court orders.