In the books ‘Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt’ and ‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for case workers’ I have given a pretty detailed overview of what is problematic about children growing up in institutions and how well-supported families can help children from institutions overcome the challenges that have developed.
Continue reading “Introductory Video of the Model of Understanding Trauma”Tag: #Adoption
Training Manual for Case Workers
The training manual is now available! It is the twin to Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt, which I published in September last year. That was a book written for adoptive parents caring or planning to care for a child coming from an institution. The book gave information about how institutionalisation affects brain development and the stress response system, what the effects of that are and how parents can support the child to overcome challenging behaviour and developmental delays as much as possible. This information is not only applicable to children who are adopted from institutions. It applies to all children who are moved from institutions to families. That is why, even before the ‘adoption version’ came out, I had started work on adapting the same basic content to a different audience.
Continue reading “Training Manual for Case Workers”Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children
The moment has finally come! I started working on the first draft of this book late 2019. A combination of it just being a whole lot of work, having other work to take care of, and some pandemic related delays caused it to take almost three years in the end. But it is here now.
Continue reading “Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children”A Taste of The New Book
My new book “Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt.” is about to come out/has just come out. Here, I want to give you a little taste of what it is about, with an excerpt:
Continue reading “A Taste of The New Book”Ensuring Help Does Not Harm Ukrainian Children
It has taken me a while to feel able to write a blog about the situation of children from Ukraine during the current war. Even though from the start I felt that I wanted to. The main problem, I think, was that there are just so many aspects to the problems that the children are facing, that it is hard to know where to start. A lot of organisations and individuals have jumped into action and are doing absolutely everything they can to keep Ukrainian children as safe as possible. Unfortunately, under the current circumstances, it feels a lot like trying to carry water in a sieve. However, with many of the basics being addressed, things are starting to crystalise a bit more for me.
Continue reading “Ensuring Help Does Not Harm Ukrainian Children”Helping Children Seek Help
One of the speakers at the DI conference, in Sofia at the start of the month, was Dr Peter Fuggle, director of clinical and service improvement at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in the UK. He talked about the Anna Freud Centre’s approach to helping children who have been institutionalised.
Continue reading “Helping Children Seek Help”World Down’s Syndrome Day
Today is World Down’s Syndrome Day, a day to raise awareness about Down’s Syndrome and to help dispel some of the myths around it. Myths that in many places lead to children being abandoned and sometimes institutionalised.
Until recently even in so-called Western countries, and today still in many places do people have the impression that every child with Down’s syndrome is a worst-case scenario, with even doctors advising parents not to keep the child, because it is no use. This is a major misconception.
Continue reading “World Down’s Syndrome Day”DI: The Institution’s Job
An institution deciding to move their children to family-based care – or being ordered to by their government – has a big job ahead of it. Just showing the children the door is not going to be enough and would lead to a lot of suffering and trauma among the children. It would be likely to lead to children ending up living on the street and/or being targeted for trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Making the move to family-based care needs to be responsibly handled and carefully planned. So, in this blog I will put forward some of the things that are very important to make sure of.
Continue reading “DI: The Institution’s Job”International Women’s Day
Today is International Women’s Day, something that is celebrated more exuberantly in some countries than in others. Whether or not Women’s Day is celebrated where you are, it is important to give some thought to the position of women and to their achievements.
This is not only useful and important in general, it is also relevant with regards to the efforts to move towards family-based solutions in alternative care.
Continue reading “International Women’s Day”Forever Families: Adoption
Often children who cannot stay with their parents need an alternative for a limited time. It might be days, weeks, months or sometimes even a few years. However, after that time they may be able to go back to their own parents. That, of course, is the ideal for any child.
Unfortunately, in some cases it is clear from pretty early on, that the child will never be able to return to the care of her parents or extended family. In these cases, it is possible to organise long-term foster care for the child, something that happens in many places. However, foster care usually does not give the same feeling of permanence and security as the other option: adoption.
Continue reading “Forever Families: Adoption”