Therapeutic fostering centers around a unique approach to looking after children in care. The carers in these households have advanced training, and varying demands in their daily lives. These settings are necessary for a range of reasons, and the benefits of providing this type of support are unparalleled. The fact is, therapeutic care settings will always be necessary, and here are the top advantages.
What Is Therapeutic Care?
Therapeutic foster care, led by specialist agencies like ISP Fostering is designed to help children who have suffered from trauma prior to being placed in care. Many of these children have suffered from neglect, abuse, or severe disruption and require extra care over a loving home. Every child who receives therapeutic care will have an individual treatment plan, which helps ensure they receive the therapy they need. This could be speech and language therapy, art therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and more.
So, what are the benefits?
Increased Support
A child in a therapeutic foster care placement will often need a higher level of support. This will be provided, and the main appeal of this is that all of their additional therapeutic needs will be met by specially trained foster parents and a wrap-around professional team. This level of support will go above what is typical, and the people involved will work hard to provide a range of resources that will improve the child’s daily life.
Tailored Training
There will also be specific training modules that focus on a range of topics that could impact a care environment. These could be anything from learning about attachment and survival strategies to managing sensitive disclosures, and all of this is extremely useful for both the child and the carer. Training is a necessary part of becoming a foster carer and maintaining the role successfully, and therapeutic foster parents will always have ongoing education as a given thing.
Consistency Where It’s Needed the Most
Without the right support, a child living with trauma is likely to feel unsafe and living day-to-day in fight-or-flight. This means they need to be shown that relationships with adults can be safe before they even think about moving forward in their own mind. A therapeutic relationship will always strive for consistency because this offers a solid foundation to help a child heal.
Visibility
Above all else, a child in this network will be entirely visible to all of the professionals in their lives, who are all working together to support a child in care. In time, the young person will increasingly develop a sense of self and learn how to connect with other adults. This is important because everyone in the world deserves a home environment where they can be seen and heard authentically.
Therapeutic foster care has a lot of benefits for the young people in its midst. There are incredible lines of support and a million and one ways in which foster children will be supported as they move through their time here.