Care Visions Children’s ServicesCare Visions Children’s ServicesSupporting young people leaving our careSupporting young people leaving our care

Maureen Cassidy- Sanctuary Co-ordinator (Residential Children’s Services)

Lesley-Anne Gemmell, Area Manager (Residential Children's Services)

Jennifer Clark, Care Leaver – Who Cares Scotland

Care Visions Children’s Services • Scotland’s largest independent provider of residential care

for children. Our first house opened in 1998

• One of the country’s leading independent providers of fostering

• We specialise in working with some of the most vulnerable children and young people

• We help children and young people understand their experiences and help them to ‘recover’.

• Committed to professional development and training of staff through the Sanctuary model – caring for children and young people from a trauma perspective.

What do we know?

The outcomes for young people leaving care are poor

What do we know?

Why ?Homelessness/RooflessPrisonUnemploymentDepressionDomestic violenceAddictionAbusePoverty and destitution Loneliness

National Policy

• There has been recognition in national policy of the need to improve support for care leavers in Scotland. More Choices, More Chances (Scottish Executive, 2006), Looked After Children and Young People: We Can and Must Do Better (Scottish Executive, 2007) and These are Our Bairns: a Guide for Community Planning Partnerships on being a good corporate parent (Scottish Government, 2008) are some of the guidance and policy outlines which have stressed the importance of the support we need to give young people in our care and our care leavers.

At Care Visions we believe that every young person has the capacity to recover from trauma and adversity and, against the odds, can look forward to a bright and fulfilling future.

To helpachieve this we use …

The Sanctuary ModelThe Sanctuary Model

Why Sanctuary?• It provides a framework for recovery.

• It enhances the quality of care.

• It helps children, young people, and carers make sense of how present behaviours are informed by past experience.

• It teaches children and young people to replace actions with words; self harm with self care strategies.

Four Pillars of Sanctuary• Trauma Theory – a foundation for creating a trauma

informed environment.

• S.S.E.E.L.L.F. F. – a model which organises the way in which we think about individuals, organisations and recovery.

• The Seven Commitments – our value base which guides individual beliefs, practices and policies.

• Sanctuary Tools – a range of resources and activities aimed at helping individuals make sense of trauma.

The ACE’s Study

• The largest study of its kind ever done to examine the health and The largest study of its kind ever done to examine the health and social effects of adverse childhood experiences over the lifespansocial effects of adverse childhood experiences over the lifespan

(Felitti & Anda)(Felitti & Anda)

• Adverse Childhood Experiences- Trauma and LossAdverse Childhood Experiences- Trauma and Loss

• The more ACE’s a person is exposed to the greater the risk of The more ACE’s a person is exposed to the greater the risk of chronic disease, premature mortality, substance abuse, chronic chronic disease, premature mortality, substance abuse, chronic depression, poor mental health and victims of violent relationshipsdepression, poor mental health and victims of violent relationships

• Virtually every study shows that ACE’s are strong predictors of Virtually every study shows that ACE’s are strong predictors of homelessness homelessness (Burt, 2001)(Burt, 2001)

Trauma

What is trauma?What is trauma?

“ Trauma is an overwhelming event that causes intense feelings of fear, helplessness and horror.”

Dr S.L. Bloom

“Traumatisation occurs when both internal and external resources are inadequate to cope with threat”

Bessel Van der Kolk 1989

What we know about trauma?

Trauma interferes with the integration of left and right hemispheres of the brain. This occurs to such an extent that young people cannot access rational thought in the face of overwhelming emotion and are prone to react with extreme helplessness, confusion, withdrawal or rage.

When we are terrified, language fails us.

Fear can look like this!Fear can look like this!

Fear can look like this!

But feel more like this!But feel more like this!

How do such children and young people present?

• Foreshortened and diminished view of future

• The world has become a bad place

• Inability to trust. No expectation of recourse to justice

• Attributing hostile intentions to neutral stimuli (constantly under threat)

• Problems with sex and sexuality

• Maladaptive coping mechanisms- harming self through substance abuse, self harm and risk taking behaviours

• Re-victimised in adult life or re-create violent relationships

• Harming others, re-enacting but putting others in victim role

A baby exposed to constant harm and threat will develop into a child/adult in a constant state of alarm and readiness to react to any perceived threat.

TheThe S S..EE..LL..F F FrameworkFramework

Safety- No-one can recover or works well without having a sense of safety. Safety means physical safety, emotional safety, social safety and moral safety. Safety is where we always start a end. If you are not safe, you cannot recover effectively.

Emotions- Managing emotions is the step that helps us to know what we are feeling and to handle our feelings in a way that doesn’t hurt ourselves or others.

Loss- Loss is the step that helps us acknowledge and grieve the painful things that have happened to us, in a safe way. Then we can let go, and move to a healthy future.

Future- Future is the step where we look at our choices in creating a better personal future.

Seven Commitments

• Non violence - 3 components of communication consist of :words 7%; tone of voice; 38%, body language 55%.

• Emotional intelligence - managing our feelings so that we don’t hurt ourselves or others.

• Social learning - respecting and sharing the ideas of our teams.

• Democracy - shared decision making.

• Open communication - saying what we mean and not being mean when we say it.

• Social responsibility - together we accomplish more. Everyone makes a contribution to the organisational culture.

• Growth and change - creating hope for our clients and ourselves.  

The Sanctuary Toolkit• Community Meeting

• Red Flag Meetings

• Safety Plans

• Self Care Plans

• Team Meetings

• Care Reviews

• Self Education

The Sanctuary Model• Emphasis on Safety

• A platform for understanding experiences of trauma and adversity

• Development of positive relationships and forming appropriate attachments.

• Helps build self esteem

• Enhanced cognitive skills- i.e. problem solving and decision making.

• Improved emotional management

• Restores hope for the future.

Sanctuary is not a sickness model but a social/recovery model

And finally ………

Just when the caterpillar thought its world

was over ….

It became a butterfly

-anonymous