School refusal is a significant problem for young people in out-of-home care and the Juvenile Justice program. This study evaluates an anti-truancy program called the Truancy Assessment and Service Centre (TASC) which operates in the ‘deep south’ region of the USA (e.g. Louisiana). It is worth noting that in Australia, we tend to use the more neutral term of ‘school…
Month: June 2017
The Teaching Family Model of residential care: The return of the black sheep
The trauma attachment model, as articulated by the Sanctuary Model or Bruce Perry etc, is the dominant treatment model or paradigm for residential care in Australia. This 2017 study from the USA serves as a reminder that there is an alternative paradigm, namely the Teaching Family Model (TFM). (See YouTube presentation on TFM here.) TFM is based on the…
Treating Chronically Traumatized Children: Don’t let sleeping dogs lie!
Arianne Struik is a clinical psychologist who works with traumatised Indigenous children in remote parts of Australia on a fly in/fly out(FIFO) basis. She presented a paper entitled Treating Chronically Traumatized Children: Don’t let sleeping dogs lie at the Australian Psychology Society (APS) Conference last year. The APS has released a video of her presentation at the cost of only…
Reporting sexual abuse in residential care. Who do residents trust the most?
This 2017 Dutch study examined whether clients in residential care are more likely to report sexual abuse to front line professionals compared to other professionals (referred to as ‘treatment professionals’). In the Australian context, front line professionals are residential care workers. The ‘treatment professionals’ include psychologists, other therapists, teachers etc. Based on attachment theory and ecological theory, the study predicted…