April 2010

FAMILY FUTURES SPRING NEWSLETTER

NEW YEAR NEW SERVICES

We are welcoming spring with some new services.  We have been aware for many years that all new placements would benefit from some therapeutic input in the early stages to help parents understand the impact of the child's history on how they relate in the here and now, and how they can developmentally re-parent their child.  With this in mind we have designed 'Short-term Focused Attachment Therapy for New Placements' (click here for further information).

We are also aware that when placements get into difficulty and that there is a crisis, a swift, intensive and informed intervention can often be critical in preventing a placement breakdown.  In response to this need, we are now offering a 'Short-term Crisis Intervention Service' (click here for further information).

We hope that local authorities will see the value in both these new services and how cost effective these can be in getting new placements off to a secure start and in stabilising placements that have gone into difficulties.

NEW YEAR NEW STAFF

Over the last six months we have been saddened by three long established team members leaving; Liz Ronan, Louis Sydney and Elsie Price have all left.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank all three for their significant contribution to Family Futures service development over the years that they have been with us. 

The upside of these changes is that we have been joined during this time by four new members of staff: -
Dom Guard; Integrative Child Arts Psychotherapist
Rachel Staff; Social Worker
Elaine McCullough; Psychologist/Therapist
Sue Hughes; Social Worker & Integrative Child Arts Psychotherapist

We would like to welcome the above new staff members to the team, as all four bring with them a wealth of experience, training and insight.

NEW YEAR NEW SKILLS

We are pleased to announce that Jay Vaughan; Therapy Service Manager has completed her Theraplay training and is now a qualified Theraplay Practitioner and Supervisor.  This is a considerable achievement as she is now one of the very few in the UK who is certified with the Theraplay Institute in Chicago.

Dan Hughes has set up a DDP Institute which will be accrediting Therapists who have completed his DDP training and have had supervision tapes eveluated.  Please click here to go straight to the website.  Family Futures are taking an active part in supporting Dan in setting up a UK branch and staff at Family Futures will be completing the accreditation programme. 

NEW YEAR NEW TRAINING

• Developmental Re-Parenting: A 1 Day Introductory Course
• Life Story Work with Children Looked After: A 1 Day Introductory Course
• The Impact of Developmental Trauma on the Neuro-physiological Development of Children and How to Help Them Recover:A 1 Day Workshop
  
  We have received numerous requests to put our training on as in-house trainings for local authorities.  This we are happy to do as we recognise that local authorities are increasingly reluctant to send individuals on external courses.  We have also begun to tailor our trainings to meet the needs not only of fostering and adoption specialists, but social workers working in mainstream child care and child protection services.  We are always happy to talk to agencies about providing a bespoke training programme. 

We wish all our service users and friends a warm and sunny spring