The importance of Trauma Informed Care
It is important that Carers have an understanding of how the trauma children have suffered changes the brain’s neural pathways and therefore a child’s behaviour.
The importance of Trauma Informed Care
Children coming into care these days usually present with much higher emotional and behavioural needs than Carers will have encountered in previous years. For many of us, the abuse and neglect foster children have experienced is inconceivable.
It is, however, important that Carers have an understanding of how the trauma children have suffered changes the brain’s neural pathways and therefore a child’s behaviour and ways of relating to others.
We need to understand how their now maladaptive ways of being in the world were once their survival strategy. To facilitate healing, we need empathy for what children have been through as we rewire pathways for them to experience a different way to be in relationships and the world.
Most children who come into care have faced traumatic experiences at home such as abuse or neglect, Carers and staff need to be well versed in understanding and responding to trauma in order to help them recover.
This is known as therapeutic foster care. Therapeutic foster care incorporates an understanding of neuroscience in order to ensure positive outcomes for the child.
Key Assets provide comprehensive training for our Carers in developing their understanding of trauma-informed care principles
Key Assets provide comprehensive training for our Carers in developing their understanding of trauma-informed care principles so that they can offer consistency, routine and predictability in ordinary everyday experiences.
As well as this, our Social Workers and Therapists work alongside Carers in understanding the child’s behaviour and building a therapeutic relationship with them. Even when Carers have successfully raised their own family it is unlikely they would have dealt with the response and behaviours that stem from trauma, so they need to learn different strategies to manage this behaviour.
An essential element of recovery for a child who has been removed from the care of their birth parents is therapeutic parenting from the Foster Carer. This re-enforces an element of stability that they may have been lacking in their previous home life. The most important gift a Carer can give a child is a felt sense of SAFETY.
Physical and emotional safety is created through predictable and stable caregiving. Children need to learn about normal family relationships with Carers who will be alongside them as they rewire and meet early developmental milestones they missed, setting them up to manage life’s ups and downs.
What Training Is Provided For Therapeutic Care?
At Key Assets, we offer a variety of training and support for our Foster Carers.
All Foster Carers must complete compulsory training to properly equip them to successfully support a foster child.
Our curriculum also hosts a range of courses to assist in ongoing professional development.
These courses are suggested by our team to our Foster Carers and tailored to their foster child’s individual backgrounds and specific behavioural needs.
Some of the topics offered are Working With Children Who Have Been Abused, Understanding Attachment, Understanding and Managing Difficult Behaviour, Understanding The Impact of Trauma.
Check your eligibility for any of the above Foster Carer roles