- Title
- ‘You say one thing wrong, and your children are gone’ : exploring trauma-informed practices in foster and kinship care
- Creator
- Cooper, Kimberlea; Sadowski, Christina; Townsend, Rob
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/197626
- Identifier
- vital:18906
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad087
- Identifier
- ISSN:0045-3102 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Trauma-informed care is a growing practice approach in child and family social work. Current policy directions in out-of-home care (OOHC) in Victoria, Australia show an interest in further implementation of trauma-informed care, particularly through training for foster and kinship carers. Drawing upon findings from grounded theory research with sixteen foster and kinship carers, this article considers the application of trauma-informed practices in home-based care in the Central Highlands region of Victoria, Australia. The research reveals that whilst carers utilise principles of trauma-informed care to support children and young people, they do not always experience trauma-informed support from the wider OOHC system. This discrepancy suggests that the implementation of trauma-informed care has the potential to increase pressure on home-based carers if it is only encouraged at the interpersonal level between carers and children, without incorporating associated systems-level change. These findings propose that whilst micro-level support and training for carers are necessary and useful, it is crucial for OOHC systems to move beyond such initiatives to plan and enact macro-level reforms. © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers.
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Relation
- British Journal of Social Work Vol. 53, no. 6 (2023), p. 3055-3072
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Rights
- Copyright © The Author(s) 2023
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- 4409 Social work; Foster care; Kinship care; Looked after children; Out-of-home care; Trauma-informed care
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Funder
- K.C. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Fee-Offset Scholarship through Federation University Australia and a Central Highlands Children and Youth Area Partnership industry-funded stipend through CAFS Inc. Funding text 2: K.C. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Fee-Offset Scholarship through Federation University Australia and a Central Highlands Children and Youth Area Partnership industry-funded stipend through CAFS Inc.
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