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16 November
NO 1244
Foster care
The Glasgow-based Foster Carers' Training Project set out to answer two questions: "What problems do children in foster care have?" and "Can we train foster carers to reduce children's problems?".
I became interested in these questions when I worked as an orphanage doctor in Guatemala, before going into psychiatry. Because I had a dual remit – as doctor for the orphanage and also as the GP for the surrounding villages, I could see a qualitative difference in the way orphanage children interacted socially. For example, when a stranger entered the orphanage, they would be surrounded by children looking for hugs and would have to peel children's fingers off their arm.
In contrast when I, as a stranger, entered a family home, children of the same age would run away from me towards their mother's legs – which is much more normal. Many of the children in the orphanage had been street children and had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused. Interestingly, there was a well thought-out belief among the Guatemalan staff members that it was bad for children to talk about their past traumas and that we should help them forget about the past and start life afresh. I realised that, in the West, we had a belief that it was therapeutic for children to talk about their past traumas, but that this was equally untested.
When I returned to the UK, I realised that many looked after children had had similar experiences to the children in Guatemala and that the question was just as relevant. This stimulated the idea of testing the effect on children's mental health of an intervention aimed at improving foster carers' communication skills – The Foster Carers' Training Project.
H. MINNIS
Minnis, H. (2004). How can foster carers help children with complex mental health and attachment problems? International Journal of Child and Family Welfare, 7, 4. pp.162-163.
