Issue 3 – Strengthening Relationships

Issue three of Foster journal (2017) takes its title from the conference of that year, Strengthening Relationships, Strengthening Care.

Conference keynote speaker Judith Furnivall contributes an article in which she contends that offering carers knowledge of the dynamics of attachment can help them to create a therapeutic environment for children, in which everyday experiences can help children to heal and thrive.

In ‘Ideas and concepts for helping stressed children to calm down and emotionally regulate’, Helen Gogarty and Anne Marie Coll explore the mind/body connection in terms of sensory development and attachment, offering an overview of the process of emotional regulation. In their articles, psychotherapists Jim Cantwell and Christina Enright respectively focus on the challenge of ‘reading’ what might be happening in relationship moments between adults and children and the impact of developmental trauma on a child from both the attachment and brain-development perspectives.

Articles by Marianne Dwyer and Majella Hickey discuss the experiences of loss and shame in the context of foster care. In ‘The sexual health needs of young people in care in Ireland: perspectives of foster parents and young care leavers’ Professor Abbey Hyde and Deirdre Fullerton draw from the findings of the first study on the sexual health needs of young people in care in Ireland, with a focus on the perspectives of foster carers and young care leavers.

In their article, ‘Recognising and supporting the birth children of foster carers: messages from research’, Dr Dave Williams and Sarah O’Donohoe present an overview of relevant research and literature, including Dave’s own research into this subject. They offer insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of birth children within the fostering process.