23 November 2009
Building relationships with families of children in care
Foster carers discussed their experiences of working with the parents of children in their care at a recent Learning and Development session. They talked about both the rewards and the challenges, but empathy was the theme of the day.
Connie and Toon are relatively new carers with Anglicare Victoria. They said the session addressed many of their anxieties. "It was something we were nervous about, and I think a lot of the other new carers feel the same thing. We worried that we would say the wrong thing, and we worried about aggression from parents.
But Connie says that after the session she and her husband, Toon, felt reassured. "We realised that we don't need to feel afraid and that we had the wrong idea about parents. We also felt that we weren't alone in trying to work out how build relationships."
Janine, an experienced carer, also went along to the session. She shared some of her experiences of working with parents. "The most positive experience was probably with a girl we had who was 18 months old".
Janine said that in the month leading up to the baby going back to her father she built a strong relationship with him. "We're still in contact today and that was 6 ½ years ago. He still calls to bounce things off me every now and then so that is really positive."
Although Connie says they haven't had much face-to-face contact with parents, they done other things to involve parents
"On Mother's Day we sent flowers and a card to mum with a baby photos and she really appreciated that because it was her first Mother's Day without her baby", she says.
"For the young boy with us we took a photo of him with his cake at his birthday and sent that, just so that she knew that his celebrations are not forgotten."
She says that these things have been important for everyone,"It's reassurance on both sides. The parents know that their children are in safe hands, and for us, we know that parents are happy with what we are doing".
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