Children and young people in out of home care have experienced adversity and they deserve to feel safe, connected and have attuned relationships with their carers and care team. 

Australian Childhood Foundation Foster Care WA team comprise of Care Coordinators and Therapeutic Specialists who practice using the Doolann Therapeutic Model of Care which is a comprehensive care response for children and young people in out of home care. Our aim is to provide inclusive, culturally strong therapeutic care and support to vulnerable children and young people, and their foster carers. Using this model, the team positions children and young people at the centre of all practice.

Following the Out of Home Care reform in WA, delivering a therapeutic foster care program as a new provider to carers who have already been caring for numerous years has brought an array of learning. Some interventions include supporting carers with a history of conflictual relationships with stakeholders involved in the child’s life, supporting carers with their understanding of trauma related behaviours and behaviours that challenge, and supporting children and young people with placement moves. We practice with the child at the forefront and have surrounded their care team with trauma informed therapeutic knowledge and interventions.

The children and young people that we are working with are starting to achieve outcomes that have been seen as too hard to achieve in the past. We have examples of children using their own words to articulate how they feel, and care teams who work together for the best interests of the child now there is a shared understanding of care.