Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T11:18:15.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Healing Complex Trauma through Therapeutic Residential Care: The Lighthouse Foundation Therapeutic Family Model of Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Pauline J. McLoughlin  and
Rudy Gonzalez
Pauline J. McLoughlin
Affiliation:
Lighthouse Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Australia
Rudy Gonzalez*
Affiliation:
Lighthouse Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Rudy Gonzalez, Executive Director, Lighthouse Institute, Victoria, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) has attracted increasing interest in Australia, as a specialised out-of-home care option for children with complex needs. Extending beyond the limitations of traditional residential programmes, TRC aims to address the impact of trauma and promote positive development and wellbeing. The Lighthouse Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne, providing a long-term programme of TRC to young people aged 15 to 22 at intake. The organisation has developed an attachment and trauma-informed therapeutic community approach, embodied in the Therapeutic Family Model of Care. This discussion paper explores how the therapeutic community approach taken by Lighthouse provides a different experience of the cultural ‘sites’ in which early traumatic experiences occur – including the home environment, experiences of family, and the wider community. In doing so, we propose that an important dimension of TRC is the capacity to challenge traumatic relational blueprints of abuse and neglect. This, in turn, supports children to form and sustain positive and reciprocal relationships, and to live inter-dependently in the community.

Keywords

trauma-informed carechild developmenttherapeutic residential caretherapeutic communitiesfamily therapy
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 169 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) (2007). Outcomes for Children and Young People in Care, Research Brief, No. 3. Melbourne: National Child Protection Clearinghouse.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2010). Child protection Australia 2009–10. Child Welfare Series, 51, 44.Google Scholar
Barton, S., Gonzalez, R., & Tomlinson, P. (2012). Therapeutic residential care for children and young people: An attachment and trauma-informed model for practice. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Becker-Weidman, A., & Shell, D. (2005). Creating capacity for attachment. Oklahoma City, OK: Wood and Barnes.Google Scholar
Bloom, S. L. (2003). Creating sanctuary: Healing from systematic abuses of power. p. 4. Retrieved from www.sanctuaryweb.com/PDFs_new/Bloom%20Creating%20Sanctuary%20Healing%20From%20Systemic.pdfGoogle Scholar
Bloom, S. L. (2005). The Sanctuary Model of organizational change for children's residential treatment. Therapeutic Community: The International Journal for Therapeutic and Supportive Organizations, 26, 65–81.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent–child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bromfield, L., & Osborn, A. (2008). Australian research investigating residential and specialised models of care: A systematic review. Developing Practice, 20, 23–32.Google Scholar
Bromfield, L., Osborn, A., Panozzo, S., & Richardson, N. (2005). Out-of-home care in Australia: Messages from research. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Cashmore, J. A., & Paxman, M. (2006). Predicting after-care outcomes: The importance of ‘felt’ security. Child and Family Social Work, 11, 232–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, A., Blaustein, M., Spinazzola, J., & van der Kolk, B. (Eds.). (2003). Complex trauma in children and adolescents: White Paper from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Complex Trauma Task Force. Los Angeles, CA: National Child Traumatic Stress Network.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courtois, C. A. (2004). Complex trauma, complex reactions: assessment and treatment. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41, 412–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dockar-Drysdale, B. (1990). The provision of primary experience. London: Free Association Books.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, R., Cameron, C., & Klendo, L. (2012). The Therapeutic Family Model of Care: An attachment and trauma informed approach to transitional planning. Developing Practice, 32, 13–23.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, R., Klendo, L. & Thorpe, S. (2013). Complex trauma, mental health and youth homelessness: The facts, the gaps and what works. Parity, 26, 3.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, R., & McLoughlin, P. (2013, 2 August). Developing outcomes based practice in therapeutic care: The Lighthouse Therapeutic Outcomes Assessment. Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare 3rd Annual Sector Research & Evidence Forum.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, R., Tomlinson, P., & Klendo, L. (2012). Trauma informed care for homeless young people: An integrated systems approach. Parity, 25 (7), 28–29.Google Scholar
Hannon, C., Wood, C., & Bazalgette, L. (2010). In loco parentis: ‘To deliver the best for looked after children, the state must be a confident parent. . .’. London: Demos.Google Scholar
Herman, D. B., Susser, E. S., & Struening, E. L. (1994). Childhood out-of-home care and current depressive symptoms among homeless adults. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 1849–1851.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence – from domestic abuse to political terror. New York: Perseus Books Group.Google Scholar
Knorth, E. J., Harder, A. T., Zandberg, T., & Kendrick, A. J. (2008). Under one roof: A selective meta-analysis on outcomes of residential child and youth care. Child and Youth Services Review, 30, 123–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, A. (2010). Effects of child abuse and neglect for children and adolescents. Melbourne: National Child Protection Clearinghouse.Google Scholar
McLean, S., Price-Robertson, R., & Robinson, E. (2011). Therapeutic residential care in Australia: Taking stock and looking forward. National Child Protection Clearinghouse Issues, No. 35.Google Scholar
McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14 (1), 6–23.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNamara, P. (in press). A new era in the development of therapeutic residential care in the State of Victoria. In Whittaker, J. K., Valle, J. F. Del & Holmes, L. (Eds.), Therapeutic residential care with children and youth: Developing evidence-based international practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Mendes, P., Johnson, G., & Moslehuddin, B. (2011). Young people leaving state out-of-home care: Australian policy and practice. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.Google Scholar
Miller, E. J. (1993). The healthy organisation: Creating a holding environment: Conditions for psychological security. London: The Tavistock Institute.Google Scholar
Osborn, A., & Bromfield, L. (2007). Outcomes for children and young people in care. Australian Institute of Family Studies Research Brief, 3, 1–15.Google Scholar
Osborn, A., & Delfabbro, P. H. (2006). An analysis of the social background and placement history of children with multiple and complex needs in Australian out-of-home care. Communities, Children and Families Australia, 1, 33–42.Google Scholar
Parliament of Australia Senate (PAS). (2004). Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children. Community Affairs References Committee. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Perry, B. D. (2005). Maltreatment and the developing child: How early childhood experience shapes child and culture. Margaret McCain lecture on September 23, 2004, Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System. Retrieved from www.lfcc.on.ca/mccain/perry.pdfGoogle Scholar
Perry, B. D. (2006). Applying principles of neurodevelopment to clinical work with maltreated and traumatized children: The neurosequential model of therapeutics. In Boyd, N. (Ed.), Traumatized youth in child welfare. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Prilleltensky, I. (2005). Promoting wellbeing: Time for a paradigm shift. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 66, 53–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prilleltensky, I., & Nelson, G. (2000). Promoting child and family wellness: Priorities for psychological and social interventions. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 10 (2), 85–105.3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pughe, B., & Philpot, T. (2007). Living alongside a child's recovery: Therapeutic parenting with traumatized children. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Riggs, D., Augustinos, M., & Delfabbro, P. H. (2009). Role of family belonging in recovery from child maltreatment. Australian Psychologist, 44, 166–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharff, D., & Scharff, J. S. (1991). Object relations family therapy. New Jersey: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Schofield, G. (2002). The significance of a secure base: a psychosocial model of long-term foster care. Child and Family Social Work, 7, 259–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, G., & Beek, M. (2005). Risk and resilience in long-term foster-care. British Journal of Social Work, 35, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sibley, D. (1995). Geographies of exclusion: Society and difference in the West. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tucci, J., Mitchell, J., & Goddard, C. (2010). Response to National Standards for Out of Home Care. Melbourne: Australian Childhood Foundation.Google Scholar
Ward, A., Kasinski, K., Pooley, J., & Worthington, A. (Eds.). (2003). Therapeutic communities for children and young people. Community, Culture and Change Series 10 (pp. 187–204). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Whitwell, J. (1998). What is a therapeutic community? Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 3 (1), 12–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1984). Residential care as therapy. In Winnicott, D. W. (1984). Deprivation and delinquency. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar