Whilst there will always be a need for mainstream Foster carers, it is an undeniable fact now that there is an urgent need for service providers to recruit more people to provide therapeutic foster carer. And more foster families need to be offered the chance to work therapeutically with children and young people who have been the victims of abuse and/or neglect. The simple fact is that around 65% of children and young people who now come into care have some level of trauma as a result of their experiences.

What do therapeutic foster carers do?

Therapeutic foster carers do not just look after children presenting with challenging behaviour. Some specialise in the care of children who have physical or mental disabilities. Often these carers already have professional nursing, mental health care or general medical experience. Other foster carers with therapeutic training will have received specialist training to oversee the management of tube feeding systems. Therapeutic foster care is something of an umbrella term that can cover areas that require specialist training – such as the care of youngsters with sexualised behaviour.

For each individual child or young person, a therapeutic foster care plan will be devised. Most importantly, foster carers will need to have a high degree of resilience to meet the challenges of providing such specialised care. People who have the commitment and desire to learn to parent therapeutically will be in high demand. Anyone considering this as a  career option will also need energy and be physically fit.

Become a therapeutic carer with Team Rainbow

At Rainbow, we are interested in recruiting from all sections of our diverse community. All applicants undergo our normal statutory and reference checks – this includes the Disclosure and Barring Screening (DBS) check. On top of this there will also be the local authority check, a medical check, home check, health and safety inspection, as well as the taking of personal references. If applicants have worked professionally with children in the past, we will also seek professional references. If you are interested in training to be a therapeutic foster carer, contact us and we will be very happy to invite you to have a detailed discussion with us.

You can also visit other pages on our website which will provide more information on the subject of therapeutic foster care: https://bit.ly/2N4L0Bn

We are also always keen to speak with people interested in more mainstream fostering. As part of the application process, we will be assessing the aptitude of an applicant(s) for becoming therapeutic carers. If it is determined that they are suitable; and of course they are keen to follow this up, we will arrange for training to provide a particular focus on the additional demands that will be made upon the foster carer as well as their family.

That is why we would like the chance to talk to anyone – irrespective of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation – who might be interested in finding out more about becoming a carer. You couldn’t make a better decision than to join Rainbow. We now have over twenty years experience training and supporting carers who came to us from all kinds of different backgrounds. Find out more about the process of becoming a foster carer with us at:

https://bit.ly/2OkgCzS

We are now looking for new people to be trained in therapeutic fostering in London, Birmingham and Manchester. And it’s easy to find out if you have what it takes: please call Team Rainbow for a no-obligation chat: 020 8427 3355/0330 311 2845 – or use our National Line). Be special. Be a foster carer. Be one of us!

All the latest Rainbow foster care news can be found at https://bit.ly/2kJHpsO

The post Foster care delivered in a therapeutic context: a series 1 appeared first on Rainbow.