Issue 11 – Families who foster

Foster journal Issue 11 (2021) is drawn from workshops offered at the online conference that year. It’s title, Families who Foster, refers to the wider group of carers, including those living in the immediate family of the child in care and the wider family systems surrounding them.

Conference keynote speaker Aoife Bairead offers insight into foster-parenting teenagers, as seen through the lenses of attachment-trauma and brain development. Dr Jane Herd presents an accessible map of Therapeutic Foster Care. She locates concepts associated with the terms ‘trauma’ and ‘traumatised’, terms which are often applied to children in care, within this framework, alongside learnings from neurodevelopment, affective neuroscience, and attachment.

In his article, Jim Cantwell, through a consideration of the Family Constellations approach, explores how family systems respond and adapt in times of challenge and how these adaptations can impact on the growth and development of family members. In their article, ‘Our fostering journey: fostering as seen through the eyes of foster carers’ birth children’, the ‘I Believe’ group of birth children come together with the Tusla—Child and Family Agency fostering team of Kildare and West Wicklow to reflect on their fostering experiences through the use of art, poetry, music and drama.

Marte Meo is an established framework to build and enhance the quality of relationships. Liz Donohoe describes the Marte Meo method and its value in daily interactions with children.

This issue closes with an article by Professor Robbie Gilligan, originally published in 2019, on the foster care system in Ireland titled ‘The family foster care system in Ireland–Advances and challenges’.