Issue 149: july 2011

32

CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

and break ing down bar ri ers be tween

place ment and the local en vi ron ment. You 

gather peo ple at the work place for 2-3

hours, open the on line pro gram using a

pro jec tor, then first go through a ses sion’s

the ory part and end up plan ning to gether

how you will co op er ate in immediate

improvements of practice. 

In the pro ject de scribed below, or -

phan age and fos ter

fam ily  lead ers

(from  Ro ma nia,

Italy, Tur key, Spain,

Greece, Aus tria

and  Swit zer land)

were in vited to a

“train ing for train -

ers”  ed u ca tion,

went home and in -

tro duced it to their 

workplaces, and

the de sign was

then mod i fied to be as work place- and

user-friendly as pos si ble. They also pro -

duced most of the pho tos and videos in

the program.

The European Fairstart Project

(www.fairstart.net): real life tested

standards for caregiver education

From 2008-10 I started a Eu ro pean

Com mis sion  grant  pro ject  in  co op er a tion

with the Dan ish State So cial and Health

Care Col lege in Den mark. The pur pose

was to de velop and test an ed u ca -

tion/development  pro gram  em pow er ing

local care givers in at tach ment based care

for young chil dren placed out side home. A 

sci en tist net work was formed, and or -

phan age leaders/fos ter  fam ily  man ag ers  in

7 coun tries tested the de sign in real life

and  fi nally  rec om mended  EU  ed u ca tional

stan dards  to the com mis sion.

Results and online education

Re sults were very pos i tive with re spect 

to both im proved qual ity in care, staff/ 

leader  co op er a tion  and  child  de vel op -

ment. One pro ject out come was

www.fairstart.net/training

. This pro gram is 

in 8 lan guage  ver -

sions, free of charge

and only re quires

internet ac cess. To

re duce  ed u ca tion

costs, the pro gram is 

used at the work -

place sup ported by a 

hand book for the

leader, two score -

cards for be fore-and

–after  as sess ment,

and 15 on line ses -

sions  in clud ing  video  dem on stra tions  of

the ory in daily prac tice. 

Beyond Europe: versions for 3

rd

 world

caregivers

At pres ent (May 2011), pro gram suc -

cess has spurred a sec ond EU pro ject,

FairTrans, to dis sem i nate the pro gram in

risk zones in 3

rd

 World coun tries. Also, the 

pro gram has just been cho sen by the gov -

ern ment, SOSChildren’s vil lages and

REACT  as  fu ture  stan dard  ed u ca tion  for

the  8000  In do ne sian  or phan ages.  It  is

being trans lated also into French, Amhari

(Ethi o pian), and many East ern Eu rope and 

Asian lan guage trans la tions are being pro -

duced by Translateurs Sans Frontiéres

(trans la tors  with out  bor ders,

www.tsf-twb.org

 ).

---

De sign  de vel op ment  is  pro duced  in  co -

op er a tion  with  Swiss 

www.seedlearn.org

,

a  non-profit  or ga ni za tion  aim ing  at  cre at -

ing ef fi cient e-learn ing for so cial

or ga ni za tions.  In  the  fu ture,  more  ver sions 

may be pro duced and pub lished at

www.globalorphanage.net

The global pro ject pur pose is to sup -

port qual ity or phan care stan dards and

cre ate  a  pos i tive  pro fes sional  iden tity  in

care givers  and  their  or ga ni za tions.

I’m com pletely stunned by the en thu si -

asm of sci en tists, users and de vel op ers in

many coun tries, and I’d like to thank just a 

few of them here: Charles Zeanah of

Tulane  Uni ver sity,  Rob ert  Mc Call  Pitts -

burgh Uni ver sity, R.A.D. Hoksbergen

Utrecht Uni ver sity, Sheyla Blumen Lima

Uni ver sity  for  sci ence  net work ing.  EU

gov ern ments,  pro ject  part ners,  child  care

lead ers and staffs in the Eu ro pean pro ject.

Trans la tors  With out  Bor ders,  so cial

worker Karine Bordeleau of Can ada for

the French trans la tion, AIEJI and

SOSVillages, REACT In do ne sia, and many

oth ers who gen er ously gave their time

and knowledge to the project. 

We all hope that CYC work ers will

make use of the pro gram in their ef forts

to im prove child care. If you need sup port 

or have a bad internet con nec tion, you

can also get the pro gram on DVD in your

pre ferred lan guage by mail ing me at

[e-mail]

.

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CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

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Mental health of children and young

people

A con sid er able body of re cent re search 

high lights the im por tance of child hood ex -

pe ri ences  in  lay ing  the  foun da tions  not

only for in di vid ual men tal health and

wellbeing later in life, but also for the de -

vel op ment  of  trust ing  so cial  and

com mu nity  re la tions  and  for  cre ativ ity  and 

pro duc tiv ity  (Fore sight  pro ject,  2009;

Layard & Dunn, 2009). In flu ences on chil -

dren’s men tal health and wellbeing at the

level of the in di vid ual child, the fam ily and

the wider com mu nity are summarised in

the tables 1 and 2. 

Children_and_young_people_who_are__looked_after'>Children and young people who are

looked after

The in flu ences that af fect the men tal

health and wellbeing of chil dren who are

looked after are sim i lar to those that af -

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CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

With men tal health and

wellbeing in mind

Allyson McCollam

Abstract: This paper is based on work un der taken on be half of the Scot tish De vel op ment

Cen tre for mental Health and it ex plores key chal lenges in ad dress ing the men tal health needs

of chil dren and young peo ple who are looked after away from home. It con sid ers some mod els of

work ing that show prom ise in build ing bridges be tween ac tiv i ties to pro mote good men tal health

for all such chil dren, as well as high light ing ac tiv i ties that focus on as sess ment, care and

treat ment for those who re quire such in ter ven tion.

Child

Family

Community

Learning

difficulties

Parental conflict

Socia-economic

disadvantage

Communication

difficulties

Family

breakdown

Homelessness

Developmental

delay

Inconsistent

discipline

Disaster

Genetic

influences

Rejecting

relationships

Discrimination

Difficult

temperament

Inability to adapt 

to child’s

changing needs

Other significant

life events

Physical illness

Parental mental

illness

Academic

“failure”

Physical, sexual

or emotional

abuse

Low self-esteem

Death or loss of

close

relationship

Table 1

Risk fac tors for men tal health and wellbeing

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