Equipo Clínico de Intervención a Domicilio: cómo trabajamos desde el modelo AMBIT con las familias

In recent years we have witnessed an increase in home-based treatments, allowing this intervention in the natural environment of families to observe how frequently symptoms in adolescents are the expression of altered family functioning. The Clinical Home InterventionTeam (ECID) works with adolescents and their families and tries to restore or improve the mentalization capacity of their members and their ability to contain anxieties and conflicts. The families we work with have high rates of domestic violence, neglect, substance abuse, mental health problems and lack of stable housing. In order to work with difficulties in multiple areas, the ECID works within the AMBIT framework (Adaptive Mentalization- Based Integrative Treatment), developed by the Anna Freud Centre, which helps us to maintain a mentalizing stance in our work with patients and families, with the network, and within the team itself. In the work with families, we always have two professionals involved, which helps us to maintain the mentalizing capacity and gives us the possibility of modeling the ask for help in families where asking for help and relying on it is extremely complicated. We adjust our family intervention to the family needs at any time. This paper describes our team, how we work with families, the therapist’s stance, the features of the families we work with, and, through a clinical vignette, we provide some observations of the family work done and reflect on its characteristics, contributions, and difficulties.