Table of Contents and Abstracts

Special Issue:

Mental health of children in public care: European perspectives (II)
Guest editors: Christine Cocker, & Hans Grietens

162

How can foster carers help children with complex mental health and attachment problems?Minnis, H.

Abstract: The mental health difficulties of looked after children are complex and may be based in early attachment difficulties. There is little literature on which therapeutic interventions are effective for looked after children, but interventions in which the foster caret is the main agent of thera­peutic change have been shown to be beneficial. For example research undertaken with the Glasgow based Foster Carers’ Training Project in 1999-2001 suggested that attachment-based train­ing of foster carets might make modest improvements in the mental health of looked after children. As a result of this and other Glasgow-based research, from 2003, a new mental health team for looked after children in Glasgow screens all children entering an episode of care. Intervention is now more often made by supporting the systems of care, for example, by offering consultation to foster caters, than by directly intervening therapeutically with the child. Such mod­els are beginning to influence mental health practice for looked after children across the UK.

168

The effects of state care on children’s development: New findings, new approaches
Vorria, P., Sarafidou, i., & Papaligoura, Z.

Abstract: In recent years there has been a continuing accumulation of evidence showing the importance of deprivation and disadvantage as influences on children’s psychological development. Bowlby’s (1951) original arguments on that area have been amply confirmed. The situation in Greek insti­tutions differs in important aspects from that of other countries. They have a substantial stability in staffing, many children are placed in residential group care for social and economic reasons rather than for disturbed family circumstances and a large number of children enter institutions in middle childhood. In addition, some children are admitted to residential group care from birth and by the age of two years they are adopted. These conditions provided the opportunity to study the outcomes of children admitted to group care from less adverse home circumstances. A series of research projects have been conducted in Greece during the last 20 years. The findings from these studies are presented in the present paper thereby providing new evidence on the effects of institutional upbringing on children’s development. The findings showed that institutionalized infants formed, to a large extent, a disorganized type of attachment with their caregiver similar to that found in high risk infants not living in institutions. The Greek studies have also shown that the effects of residential group care on children are, to a large extent, influenced by the children’s experiences prior to admission. More specifically, disturbance is more likely to occur when the child has experienced parental separation or divorce before insitutionalization. Fur­thermore, age of admission was also found to be an important factor influencing the effects of group care. Children admitted to residential group care before the age of 21/2 years were more adversely affected by group care rearing. The effects of institution rearing are evident up until adulthood and there seems to be an intergenerational continuity in the cycles of deprivation and disadvantage.

184

Care in mind: Improving the mental health of children and young people in state care in land
Kendrick, A., Milligan, I., & Furnivall, J.

Abstract: Some five thousand children and young people are in residential and foster care in Scotland. Many experience poor outcomes and concern about the quality of care has led to a number of government initiatives including the registration of care services and the social care workforce. Children and young people in state care experience a high level of mental health problems. Men­tal health services, however, have not served this vulnerable group well. The issue of the mental health of children and young people is now high on the government’s agenda. A national needs assessment has set out an important agenda for the development of services. In addition, a number of innovative projects have focused on meeting the mental health needs of children and young people in state care. It is important that these developments lead to integrated and flexi­ble mental health services in order to improve outcomes and well-being of children and young people in state care in Scotland.

191

learning to LUMP it?’ How to improve the mental health of children in public care. Is it just a matter of building resilience?
Buchanan, A.

Abstract: This paper argues that before promoting resilience in young people in public care in England and Wales, we need to tackle the structural problems in the system that has been set up to safeguard and promote their well being. Currently this system places looked after children at further risk of poor mental health. Key structural factors and possible ways to reduce their impact are dis­cussed before strategies to promote resilience and better mental health among children who are looked after by the state are outlined.

207

Children’s participation in Family Group Conference as a resolution model
Strandbu, A.

Abstract: Family Group Conference (FCC) is a resolution model which is implemented by Child Welfare in many countries throughout the world. Some of them have the right to be offered an FCC established by law. In an FGC the family and its network are given the opportunity to discuss and find what they consider to be the best solutions for the child.

An FGC focuses on the child’s situation who remains in the centre of the discussion. Decisions shall he in the best interest of the child, and the solution of the network must be approved by the Child Welfare Act in general. In the FGC it is also an aim to let children attend and participate in discussions regarding their own future. This article aims to draw attention to children’s possibility to participate in FGC and the support figure’s role to encourage the child to participate. The main issues are: What is the child perspective in FGC? What does it mean to partici­pate in an FGC? In what ways can children participate in an FCC?

218

Epistemic foundations of the attitudes requested on the part of preschool teachers working low socioeconomic status children and their families
Larose, F., Bédard, J., Terrisse, B., & Couturier, Y.

Abstract: Within the present curriculum reform taking place in Québec (Canada), a special emphasis is placed on two topics. First, its epistemic basis is proclaimed to be constructivist or socioconstructivist. Second, the restructured curriculum is supposed to consider the parents as partners, and knowledgeable ones, within the educational process. These two topics are supposed to characterize the whole educational system, including the preschool levels (pre-kindergarten and kin­dergarten). In this paper, we will first briefly present the history of preschool education in Québec and the major epistemic differences between the previous and actual pre-K and K education in the province. We therefore will present some results from a granted research recently finished, identifying the level of coherence between teachers’ attitudes towards parents’ knowledge and competencies and the attitudes requested within the department of education discourse and curriculum. We will conclude by an analysis of the implications of the distances described be­tween teachers’ attitudes and curricular requirements, especially in terms of continuous education needs for the ones working with the low SES child and his family.

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