Mental Health Treatment Experiences and Expectations in Foster Care: A Qualitative Investigation

Users’ experiences of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy for children and adolescents: a systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative research

“…This is consistent with evidence that youth (particularly adolescents) strongly value their privacy and autonomy, and may therefore be circumspect about caregiver involvement in therapy [21,46]. For their part, caregivers reported benefits in terms of improved stress management skills, which builds on findings from other studies that caregivers appreciated being consulted on treatment goals, and were interested in acquiring skills that would help the management of traumatic symptoms experienced by youth [48].…”

Filial Therapy as a Core Intervention with Children in Foster Care

“…Children in foster care frequently enter care due to significant psycho‐social difficulties including maltreatment, and as a result have a higher degree of mental health difficulties than the general population (Scozzaro and Janikowski, ). Children who have experienced maltreatment frequently experience difficulties in trusting adults and display emotional and behavioural difficulties that are challenging for foster families (Jee et al, ; Tarren‐Sweeney and Vetere, ). In the face of these oftentimes extreme and complex behaviours, foster carers are expected to be emotionally available, open‐minded, child‐centred and authoritative in their parenting approach (Ahmed et al, ).…”

“…Labels or diagnoses, although sometimes helpful, can lead to increased feelings of stigmatisation for children who already feel labelled due to being in care and suffering from mental health difficulties (Tatlow‐Golden and McElvaney, ). As a result and due to their understandable distrust of adults, children in care frequently avoid therapeutic help that demands them building a relationship with another stranger (Jee et al, ; Plaistow et al, ). FT's focus on the carer–child relationship as the client takes the emphasis off the child in care as the problem and concentrates attention on building carer–child relationships.…”

“…These interactions include: carers responding promptly, appropriately and predictably by verbal and non‐verbal means; the encouragement of exploratory play; face‐to‐face communications; and reciprocal relations (Ryan and Wilson, ). The non‐directive nature of its approach makes it particularly suitable for maltreated children who find it difficult to trust adults (Jee et al, ). Non‐directive play creates an atmosphere of increased safety for maltreated children as they freely choose the direction of the sessions and the extent to which they involve their carers in the play.…”

Incorporating self‐determination into substance abuse prevention programming for youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood

“…It was totally ridiculous.” (McMillen, Fedoravicius, Rowe, Zima, & Ware, ). Caregivers and youth also shared negative experiences of treatment, particularly around overmedication, and described feelings of disempowerment and coercion (Jee, Conn, Toth, Szilagyi, & Chin, ; Lee et al, ). In one study on the attitudes of older youth who had experienced mental health care, participants shared experiences such as, “They try to drug you up” and “She didn't even take the chance to listen” (Lee et al, ).…”