ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide a broad overview of the types of therapeutic programs and approaches that are used to assist these families. The term ‘therapeutic’ refers to interventions which try to address the presence of conditions that are harmful for child wellbeing, their families and those who work with them. Such approaches generally try to encourage healthier psychological and social functioning in children, while also helping to foster the development of skills in parents that enhance parental ability to have productive and healthy interactions with their children. Although interventions of this nature are highly diverse and cannot be fully encapsulated in this brief chapter, the aim is to provide an indicative summary of some of the most empirically supported methods often advanced to address the most common problems faced by children and their families in the CP system. To this end, four principal areas of need are considered: (a) Behavioural problems: how to deal with externalised or conduct-related issues; (b) Resilience: building social competency and resilience in children; (c) Early developmental harm: dealing with trauma and attachment-related problems, particularly in out-of-home care and (d) Parenting: building parental skills and enhancing family functioning.
