Cargando…
Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives
OBJECTIVES: Young people who have been removed from their family home and placed in care have often experienced maltreatment and there is well-developed evidence of poor psychological outcomes. Once in care, foster carers often become the adult who provides day-to-day support, yet we know little abo...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7066644/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32161157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033317 |
_version_ | 1783505283522232320 |
---|---|
author | Hiller, Rachel M Halligan, Sarah L Meiser-Stedman, Richard Elliott, Elizabeth Rutter-Eley, Emily |
author_facet | Hiller, Rachel M Halligan, Sarah L Meiser-Stedman, Richard Elliott, Elizabeth Rutter-Eley, Emily |
author_sort | Hiller, Rachel M |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: Young people who have been removed from their family home and placed in care have often experienced maltreatment and there is well-developed evidence of poor psychological outcomes. Once in care, foster carers often become the adult who provides day-to-day support, yet we know little about how they provide this support or the challenges to and facilitators of promoting better quality carer–child relationships. The aim of this study was to understand how carers support the emotional needs of the young people in their care and their views on barriers and opportunities for support. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 21 UK foster carers, recruited from a local authority in England. They were predominantly female (86%), aged 42–65 years old and ranged from those who were relatively new to the profession (<12 months’ experience) to those with over 30 years of experience as a carer. We ran three qualitative focus groups to gather in-depth information about their views on supporting their foster children’s emotional well-being. Participants also completed short questionnaires about their training experiences and sense of competence. RESULTS: Only half of the sample strongly endorsed feeling competent in managing the emotional needs of their foster children. While all had completed extensive training, especially on attachment, diagnosis-specific training for mental health problems (eg, trauma-related distress, depression) was less common. Thematic analysis showed consistent themes around the significant barriers carers faced navigating social care and mental health systems, and mixed views around the best way to support young people, particularly those with complex mental health needs and in relation to reminders of their early experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Findings have important implications for practice and policy around carer training and support, as well as for how services support the mental health needs of young people in care. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7066644 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70666442020-03-20 Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives Hiller, Rachel M Halligan, Sarah L Meiser-Stedman, Richard Elliott, Elizabeth Rutter-Eley, Emily BMJ Open Mental Health OBJECTIVES: Young people who have been removed from their family home and placed in care have often experienced maltreatment and there is well-developed evidence of poor psychological outcomes. Once in care, foster carers often become the adult who provides day-to-day support, yet we know little about how they provide this support or the challenges to and facilitators of promoting better quality carer–child relationships. The aim of this study was to understand how carers support the emotional needs of the young people in their care and their views on barriers and opportunities for support. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 21 UK foster carers, recruited from a local authority in England. They were predominantly female (86%), aged 42–65 years old and ranged from those who were relatively new to the profession (<12 months’ experience) to those with over 30 years of experience as a carer. We ran three qualitative focus groups to gather in-depth information about their views on supporting their foster children’s emotional well-being. Participants also completed short questionnaires about their training experiences and sense of competence. RESULTS: Only half of the sample strongly endorsed feeling competent in managing the emotional needs of their foster children. While all had completed extensive training, especially on attachment, diagnosis-specific training for mental health problems (eg, trauma-related distress, depression) was less common. Thematic analysis showed consistent themes around the significant barriers carers faced navigating social care and mental health systems, and mixed views around the best way to support young people, particularly those with complex mental health needs and in relation to reminders of their early experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Findings have important implications for practice and policy around carer training and support, as well as for how services support the mental health needs of young people in care. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7066644/ /pubmed/32161157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033317 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Mental Health Hiller, Rachel M Halligan, Sarah L Meiser-Stedman, Richard Elliott, Elizabeth Rutter-Eley, Emily Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title | Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title_full | Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title_fullStr | Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title_full_unstemmed | Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title_short | Supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
title_sort | supporting the emotional needs of young people in care: a qualitative study of foster carer perspectives |
topic | Mental Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7066644/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32161157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033317 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hillerrachelm supportingtheemotionalneedsofyoungpeopleincareaqualitativestudyoffostercarerperspectives AT halligansarahl supportingtheemotionalneedsofyoungpeopleincareaqualitativestudyoffostercarerperspectives AT meiserstedmanrichard supportingtheemotionalneedsofyoungpeopleincareaqualitativestudyoffostercarerperspectives AT elliottelizabeth supportingtheemotionalneedsofyoungpeopleincareaqualitativestudyoffostercarerperspectives AT ruttereleyemily supportingtheemotionalneedsofyoungpeopleincareaqualitativestudyoffostercarerperspectives |