The delivery of foster care in this country has to deal with a situation where rising numbers of children and young people come into foster care requiring therapy. 65% of foster children in care at 31st march 2017 had been taken into care by a local authority as they had suffered abuse or neglect. As a consequence of their experiences, many of these young people display a level of trauma.
There is a real need now for anyone considering going into foster care to become therapeutically trained. This is because so many children and young people have complex needs as a result of trauma. Therapeutic foster carers can provide the background support for children receiving therapy. Apart from providing a loving environment, carers will be given an understanding of the nature and aims of the therapy a child is having. The following describes some more of the therapies that can be used.
There are a number of different kinds of psychotherapy. They are thought of as ’talking treatments’ which involve the therapeutic conversations – as well as interactions – that take place between the therapist and a child or young person. Sometimes the family, or certain family members will be involved in the therapeutic care programme. The goal is to effect behavioural changes that will enable a child or young person to overcome the negative experiences they have undergone.
Many of the psychotherapies used are ‘relationship based treatments’. These aim to bring improvements to a young person’s relationships. And the relationships themselves can then be utilised as the means to deliver improvements.
Here, to help build knowledge, we continue from the previous blog by detailing three more psychotherapeutic approaches.
This kind of psychotherapy is used as a treatment for a wide range of disorders and conditions
This includes depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, abuse – as well as early developmental
Many people take a considerable amount of time thinking about taking the step of becoming a foster carer. That’s entirely natural as there are so many things to think about: do I have to own my own home to foster? How physically fit do I need to be? How much experience do you need to foster a sibling group? More people are interested to find out about therapeutic foster care as there is much more of a focus on this.
You can call 020 8427 3355 and find out more about the simple steps we can help you take to become a foster carer. On average this takes around sixteen weeks from application to becoming an approved carer.
Remember to take a look at our fostering news page: latest stories at http://bit.ly/2e8PrIK
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