THERAPY SERVICES

All young people placed with Care 4 Every Child will have the opportunity to benefit from therapeutic services. Where appropriately identified in their Care Plans, each young person will have the opportunity to engage in therapeutic support both individually and indirectly with the support of the team. Our therapists will support residential staff in gaining insight to support strategies that inform, review and consult therapeutic practices whilst at the same time underpin a young person’s therapeutic care plan moving forward. The process will be a multi-agency approach that encompasses the homes manager, residential staff, social workers, educational staff and other significant others that contribute to a young person’s time spent at Care 4 Every Child. 

We also wanted to look at a system that is able to support evidence based therapeutic practice and that can also focus on improving OUTCOMES for young people. With the ability to collate information, review strategies, consider progress and that can inform outcomes our engagement with BERRI has evolved. BERRI is a clinical evaluation tool for identifying, tracking and improving the outcomes of children with complex needs. 

BERRI looks at all the areas of a child's psychological functioning that often affect a young person’s placement needs, ability to undertake their activities of daily life, or happiness. 

  • Behaviour 

  • Emotional wellbeing 

  • Risk (to self and others) 

  • Relationships 

  • Indicators (of psychiatric or neurodevelopmental conditions)

Often people see just the child's behaviour, without understanding that their mental health or ability to trust and form relationships with other people might underlie how they are behaving. There is a much broader picture. We also know that a large majority of children in Care, and most children who challenge their parents, carers or other settings have significant difficulties with their mental health, development or ability to form relationships with others. We know that Adverse Childhood Experiences such as trauma, abuse and neglect can cause significant problems with attachment (the template the child has for relationships, which is formed from their experiences with their primary caregivers). 

THERAPEUTIC CRISIS INTERVENTION

 

Staff at all our homes offer all young people positive support throughout their stay and adopt a healing approach to assist those who are psychologically damaged by past traumas and experiences.

Young people are encouraged to become stronger by moving through stages off loss, grief, acceptance and attachment. On occasions young people can become unsettled and even find themselves in a crisis situation.

All our staff are trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) to enable them to effectively support young people through traumatic stressful times. TCI training is a very in-depth course that focuses on de-escalation skills to assist young people and staff must complete an exam at the end of the course.

Following a crisis situation, the young person will be given additional support and be encouraged to talk about it if they wish to do so in a life space format discussion to try and find alternative ways and to structure plans to introduce better coping mechanisms when on a particular crisis cycle.

Listening intently with an open, non-judgmental, caring approach to the young person after such a difficult time is the key to unlocking the many problems and issues that face that particular individual.

The TCI Structure gives an opportunity to the young person and adult to access a positive outcome through crisis via effective Life Space work in which a young person learns about feelings and introduces coping strategies in the escalation phase of a possible crisis outburst.

Alternative coping strategies are talked and incorporated into a child’s risk management and care plan. Over a period of time the young person becomes in touch with their feelings and behaviours and entwined with appropriate coping mechanisms results in a positive outlook.

After an incident that requires such intervention, relevant paperwork is then completed where a copy is kept in file and the other sent to the Social Worker.

Our homes use restorative practices in helping our young people understand consequences of their actions and attempt to resolve issues positively rather than punitively.

The TCI Programme promotes positive interaction between adult and child throughout any given crisis and therefore over longer periods of time appropriate trusting relationships are formed where a child will express themselves more freely.

The way adults interact with a child in crisis has such importance to the long-term development of the child.

It is often in a crisis situation where a young person will open up their emotions and therefore it is imperative that, with the correct interaction, this to be used as an opportunity to help a child access feelings and emotions and to support them and plan for the future.

We aim to empower young people by allowing them to draw their own insights, promoting their own sense of responsibility, focus on feelings of attachment and belonging, therefore developing self-esteem.