Therapeutic foster care’s impacts on juvenile offending; research

June 24, 2008 at 5:02 pm | In Child Protection, Issues for Fostering, Links, Resources | 7 Comments
Tags: circle program, criminology, juvenile justice, juvenile offending, TFC, therapeutic foster care, TrACK program, treatment foster care

One of my collegues has recently written a very interesting research paper looking at the ways that Therapeutic foster care programs such as Circle and Track programs can impact on future risks of juvenile offences.

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It doesn’t take a research paper to suggest that therapeutic foster care is the governments way of offering more money to foster parents to take in the legally kidnapped by labeling children as special needs and medicating them into submission.

Comment by Legally Kidnapped — June 25, 2008 #

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I think it’s fair to say that children who are involved with the juvenile justice system do, by definition, have special needs. As for your statement regarding medication, children in Therapeutic Foster Care are no more or less likely to be on some form of medication than other children. The emphasis, at least in Australia, of TFC is on holistic care, definitely not on one potential aspect of care such as medication.

While I respect your point of view, it would be a huge stretch to suggest that the children in the programs I have worked with were removed from their families for any reason other than to protect their mental and physical wellbeing, and in some cases their lives. These children and young people have suffered more trauma, neglect and abuse in their lives that any others who are involved with the child protection system.

Comment by Josh — June 25, 2008 #

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Josh, I enjoyed reading your essay and I guess it goes without saying that I agree with the premise completely. I am glad that you mentioned having FASD as a contributing factor to young people being in care, and being offenders. I have read some statistics (but can’t verify them) that adults with FASD (mostly undiagnosed) are very highly represented in the prison system, and that early diagnosis and the provision of services would greatly reduce those numbers. Would love to see a bit more Australian research on that topic too…Janine

Comment by Janine — June 26, 2008 #

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Thanks for the kind words Janine! I believe you are corect about FASD and the prison population. Unfortunately these underlying factors which influence rates of offending are for the most part overlooked.

Comment by Josh — June 27, 2008 #

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I am a Therapeutic foster carer in the UK, it is a fairly new way of working over here and there are not many of us, so it can be a bit lonely at times! I would love to find out more about how you are working, what support you receive etc etc. I wondered if there are any blogs or chats I could link into?

Comment by Mary — July 9, 2008 #

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You could have a look at http://fostercarevic.theiforum.com – it is a relatively new forum which needs some discussion injected into it, but I’m sure Therapeutic Foster Carers here in Australia would be interested in chatting with you!

Comment by Josh — July 10, 2008 #

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Many thanks, I will take a look. I read your research paper and found it very interesting. I understand that Brian and Kate Cairns have been over in Australia recently and I note that one of Kates books in listed in you sources. I am just finishing their Care of Tramatised Children course which I have found very informative, though it has highlighted a lot of gaps in the provision available to us.

Comment by Mary — July 10, 2008 #

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