Martin was born into a family where both parents suffered mental illness. He knows how proud we are of him, and is in regular touch. He is now working, enjoying life and is independent. When he left us at 17, Anton went into semi-independent accommodation and completed his college course and further studies. Education was always a struggle, but Anton eventually completed his GCSEs and went on to college to study automotive engineering. He began to attend education in our therapeutic school. He developed the ability to enjoy and communicate a wider range of emotion. This allowed him to begin to feel that his life might also matter to him.Īnton’s episodes of violence and destruction slowly decreased. Together with the warmth and containment of home life, and the relationships he began to develop with others, Anton began to feel the possibility that he might matter to other people. Only an expert therapeutic home can safely offer such a disturbed and disturbing child the attention and warmth which every child needs, since such an environment typically evokes increased violence when it is first encountered.Īfter a period of settling in to his new life, Anton was provided with more focused therapeutic experienced, in particular to address the trauma of his emotional neglect.
#Foster care success story full#
We focused initially on providing a safe, emotionally containing home, full of the warmth and love he had never known. He could show no emotional warmth, and was cut off from his peers.
Our experience of him was that he was angry and destructive.
Because he was so troubled, he came straight to us. Humiliatingly, school had to provide him with breakfast, a shower and fresh clothes every morning.Īnton started getting into trouble of escalating seriousness, as a result of which he was taken into care when he was 13. His bedroom was a tiny room with no windows, little more than a cupboard. This in its turn helps to spark the crucial flame of hope for other traumatised young people.Īnton’s mother and father separated when he was a baby and his father gradually withdrew from his life.Īs he grew, Anton was also emotionally and physically rejected by his mother. This is a chance for Hester to give something back, by presenting to the current group of young people an example of someone who is thriving as a result of her stay with us. Like many of our young people, Hester comes back to see us two or three times a year at Feasts. She is enjoying her course in Religious Studies, and loves walking in the nearby hills with her friends, with whom she shares a house. She left us when she was 18, an accomplished young woman. We shared with her the anticipation of visiting and choosing her university, and supported her in the transition. Hester completed GCSE’s, A and AS Levels with us.
As she made emotional progress, so her cognitive functions returned. She had always been bright when she was younger, but her emotional problems appeared to have shut down her ability to learn. She gradually learned to trust and to rely on the support of others and the insights and feelings which they provoked in her. Hester found such attention and challenge, day in day out, deeply healing. Every detail of her behaviour and communications was subject to consideration and challenge by the group, and by our therapeutically trained care staff. With a highly structured community life and tailored care plan, and being the subject of a great deal of therapeutic attention, Hester began to feel safe. But as the weeks went by, relationships began to form with her keyworker and with other young people in the community. She was repeatedly taken to the local A&E department having self-harmed, and was placed on suicide watch. Hester’s early weeks with us were a challenge. She was self-harming in a life-threatening way, uncommunicative, distracted, insomniac and refusing all food and drink. Hester came to us at 16 when she entered an acute period of suicidal depression.
#Foster care success story professional#
Hester was an only child, born to successful professional parents, both with a history of emotional or mental instability.
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