Abstract

Children and young people in care who have been traumatized need a therapeutic environment where they can heal and which meets their emotional and developmental needs.

This book provides a model of care for traumatized children and young people, based on theory and practice experience pioneered at the Lighthouse Foundation, Australia. The authors explain the impact of trauma on child development, drawing on psychodynamic, attachment and neurobiological trauma theories. The practical aspects of undertaking therapeutic care are then outlined, covering everything from forming therapeutic relationships to the importance of the home environment and daily routines. The book considers the totality of the child's experience at the individual, group, organization and community levels and argues that attention to all of these is essential if the child is to achieve wellness. Case material from both children and carers are used throughout to illustrate both the impact of trauma and how children have been helped to recovery through therapeutic care.

This book will provide anyone caring for traumatized children and young people in a residential setting with both the understanding and the practical knowledge to help children recover. It will be essential reading for managers and decision-makers responsible for looked after children, child care workers such as residential and foster carers, youth workers, social workers, mental health workers and child welfare academics.

The simplicity in presentation, however, demonstrates one of the key accomplishments of the authors in having been able to present so much potentially complex theory in having been able to present so much potentially complex theory in a way that is accessible and of great practical use... the authors achieve their aims and more by providing some sound knowledge, inspiration and food for thought for anyone with an interest in residential child care practice.
Rostrum
This is one of those rare books that successfully brings together the human and the academic. It provides a comprehensive and clear account of the theoretically based model of care used by the Lighthouse community, whilst bringing this to life with the real-life stories of young people and carers involved with this organization. Theory and concepts are described clearly and with understanding, but most importantly the authors have illustrated how these are used in practice to transform the lives of young people and carers alike. This book belongs in the collections of all practitioners involved with traumatized children and young people living in residential care.
Kim S. Golding, Clinical Psychologist and author of Nurturing Attachments
This truly global book is the product o an interesting and creative collaboration between leaders and practitioners in residential group treatment settings in Australia (The Lighthouse Community) and the UK (The Cotswold Community, SACCS). It is a long overdue contribution towards the theory base required to equip people working in multiple roles in environments that aim to be healing in its broadest sense. I enjoyed it as much for the elements of human testimony as for the attempts made to link eclectic theory with practice.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
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.
From the introduction through the final appendices, I was struck by the constant and integrated presence of thinking, feeling and reflection as integral to meeting the needs of young people, whether at an individual or organisational level... This book offers vision and motivation to those with requisite courage to work towards a more humane system of care for children and young people.
The British Journal of Social Work, Laura Steckley, Course Director, MSc Advanced Residential Child Care, Glasgow School of Social Work
This book reports on the therapeutic model of care that has been developed by the Lighthouse Foundation in Australia. In doing so, the theoretical underpinnings of this model are articulated and how this gets translated into day-to-day care is described... Hopefully, this book will stimulate discussion in a range of residential care setting and result in the establishment of some progressive and improved care practices.
Journal of Children Australia