Finding Parallels: The Experiences of Clinical Social Workers Providing Attachment-Based Treatment to Children in Foster Care

Abstract Clinical practice with children in foster care often focuses on the attachment-based trauma experienced by many children who enter the foster care system. Attachment-based treatment requires that the clinician be able to form relationships with both the child and caregivers, including foster and biological parents. Given the complex nature of the relational matrix that surrounds children in foster care, clinicians providing attachment-based treatment may have experiences of helplessness and hopelessness that parallel those of the children whom they are treating. This exploratory qualitative study surveyed 42 clinical social workers regarding their experiences of providing attachment-based treatment to children in foster care. Findings indicate that such clinicians do have experiences of helplessness and hopelessness that parallel those of the children in foster care and that such experiences are attributed to issues surrounding relationships with caregivers as well as interagency collaboration and communication between clinicians and child welfare professionals. Such findings suggest specific practice implications for clinicians providing attachment-based treatment to children in foster care including the increased involvement of biological and foster care parents in the treatment context and more systematic means of establishing collaborative relationships between clinicians, foster care and child welfare workers, and the court system.
Source: Clinical Social Work Journal - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research