Therapeutic Foster Care: What’s It All About?

There are many different types of foster care placement in the world of looked-after children. Each young person coming into the care system has different needs, and some are more advanced than others owing to different experiences that have led to trauma in their life. When this happens, the need for a therapeutic placement is evident. What’s it all about? Let’s explore below.

Therapeutic Foster Care in a Nutshell

Therapeutic care is a specialist type of care provided by niche agencies like ISP Fostering. It provides support and bespoke input for children who have survived certain types of adversity in their lives. The reasons these young people may have been removed from their homes include things like abuse and exposure to harmful situations like severe neglect and domestic abuse in the home. The purpose is to work with them to overcome difficult past experiences and help them move forward so they can live a happy and fulfilled life.

Do Therapeutic Carers Need Extra Training?

Yes. If you want to become this type of foster carer, you will go through a more advanced training programme that addresses specific behavioural responses in young people. You will learn to recognise the signs of trauma and develop the necessary skills to be responsive, adaptive, and inclusive throughout the journey.

What Additional Support is in Place for the Children?

For any young person that comes into one of these types of placement, there is always additional support and therapeutic services available to them. Each child will have an initial assessment with a therapeutic specialist to understand their individual needs and how the adults around the child can work together to help them move forward. This could be specialist therapy routes or a holistic fostering approach, for instance, one that focuses on emotional healing. There will also be extra support in educational settings which is highly beneficial when you factor in just how important education is in the long term.

 

Typical Responses from a Therapeutic Carer

When you go through your training, you will know the best ways to respond to a child in need. There are millions of strategies; only you will uncover what works in which circumstance. Remember, every young person who comes through your door will have their own unique experiences to unpick, and your role is to facilitate this and remain a safe presence throughout their process.

Example

One big example of this is working through anger with children. Repeated traumatic experiences leave young people operating in fight-or-flight. This is their survival mode. This is where big emotions and responses are felt. Children in care spend so much time in this part of the brain that they don’t have access to the higher-functioning parts of the brain, where emotional regulation, planning, and decision-making occur.

Therapeutic carers work towards understanding the reasoning behind a child’s big feelings and helping them find new and more appropriate ways to communicate them. It takes practice and patience, but it is a highly effective pathway.

Therapeutic foster care is an invaluable branch of service for young people with complex developmental trauma. They need a safe space to unwind and regain confidence, and that is exactly why these placements exist.