Intensive therapeutic care for children and young people – can you help?

December 10, 2018

In 2015 the NSW government commissioned a state-wide review into the residential care sector.

The review was triggered by concerns about the poor outcomes for young people aged 12 – 18 years, who were living in residential care homes, where their 24-hour care was provided by house supervisors and youth workers. Placement breakdowns and moves were common. As a result of the review, a new program was developed called Intensive Therapeutic Care. The aim of this model is to better meet the needs of young people, who have often experienced serious abuse and neglect, which effects their behaviour, self-esteem, emotional and educational development.

CatholicCare was successful in winning the tender in July to provide a suite of services on the Central Coast. One such program is Therapeutic Home-Based Care. This is a program for professional foster carers to provide a time limited placement, where they can focus on meeting the needs of young people who would previously have gone into residential care. This is a fantastic opportunity for CatholicCare to develop an innovative program to see the best outcomes for vulnerable young people.

We are actively looking for couples and singles with previous foster caring experience for this new program. The successful carers will be given specialised training in the areas of trauma informed care and child development. They will have weekly therapy sessions with a Therapeutic Specialist to help young people in their care. Carers will receive a generous tax free allowance of $70,000 and will be supported to attend weekly carer support meetings.

The program aims to support the young person to move into a permanent home, with the carer helping either the birth family or future foster carers to make this a successful move. If this program sounds like something you would be interested in knowing more about, please contact our team at fostercare@catholiccaredbb.org.au.

by Katie Barry, Operational Support Manager

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