Articles

How can foster carers help children with complex mental health and attachment problems?

Authors

  • Helen Minnis Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow

Keywords:

looked after children, Reactive Attachment Disorder, therapeutic foster care

Abstract

The mental health difficulties of looked after children are complex and may be based in early attachment difficulties. There is little literature on which therapeutic interventions are effective for looked after children, but interventions in which the foster carer is the main agent of therapeutic change have been shown to be beneficial. For example, research undertaken with the Glasgow based Foster Carers' Training Project in 1999-2001 suggested that attachment-based training of foster carers might make modest improvements in the mental health of looked after children. As a result of this and other Glasgow-based research, from 2003, a new mental health team for looked after children in Glasgow screens all children entering an episode of care. Intervention is now more often made by supporting the systems of care, for example, by offering consultation to foster carers, than by directly intervening therapeutically with the child. Such models are beginning to influence mental health practice for looked after children across the UK.

Author Biography

Helen Minnis, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow

Psychological Medicine, Division of Community Based Sciences, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Published

2004-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles