Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Young People

Barton, a foster carer who founded a charity that provides therapeutic residential care for traumatized and homeless children in Australia, Gonzalez, a psychologist who directs care service at the foundation, and Tomlinson, a social care consultant, outline a model of care based on the foundation's theory and practice for use by managers, decision makers, child care workers, social workers, mental health workers, and others working with traumatized children and young people in therapeutic residential care and settings like foster care. Using a trauma-informed approach that takes into account the child's experience at the individual, group, organization, and community levels, and drawing from community psychology, psychodynamic, attachment, and neurobiological trauma theories, they explain the impact of trauma on child development; practical aspects of care, from forming therapeutic relationships to the importance of the home environment and daily routines in the holding environment; transitions, aftercare, and outreach; and outcomes-based approaches. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Susan Barton is founder of the Lighthouse Foundation, Australia, which provides therapeutic residential care for traumatized and homeless children. After fostering children for several years, she founded the charity in 1991 in order to extend to more children in need the therapeutic family model of care that she had started to develop. She has won numerous awards for her work with homeless and traumatized children. Rudy Gonzalez is Director of Care Service at the Lighthouse Foundation. He has worked as a family counsellor and case manager, a psychologist in a forensic setting undertaking therapeutic work with male violent offenders both individually and in a therapeutic community, and has worked as a psychologist with traumatized children. Patrick Tomlinson is a social care consultant. He has many years' experience as a practitioner, manager and director of therapeutic child care services, and is author of several books on therapeutic child care.