Issue 149: july 2011

Ref er ences 

Barbour, R., Bryce, G., Connelly, G., Furnivall, J., 

Lewins, A., Lock hart, E., Phin, L., Stallard,

A., van Beinum, M. & Wil son, P. (2006).

Only  Con nect:  Ad dress ing  the  emo tional

needs of Scot land’s chil dren and young

peo ple. A re port on the SNAP child and

ad o les cent  men tal  health  Phase  Two

sur vey.  Ed in burgh:  Health  Scot land.

Clough, R. Bull ock, R. & Ward, A. (2006). 

What

works in res i den tial care: A re view of

re search  ev i dence  and  prac ti cal

con sid er ations.  Lon don:  Na tional

Chil dren’s  Bu reau. 

Dan iel, B. (2008). The con cept of re sil ience:

Mes sages for res i den tial child care. Chap ter 

in A. Kendrick, (Ed.), 

Res i den tial  child

care: Pros pects and chal lenges. Re search

high lights  in so cial work 47. Lon don:

Jessica Kingsley

Fore sight  pro ject  (2009). 

Men tal  cap i tal  and

wellbeing.  Ac cessed on 18th April 2009

from 

here

.

Happer, H, McCreadie, J. & Ald gate. J. (2006).

Cel e brat ing  suc cess:  What  helps  looked  after

chil dren  suc ceed.  Ed in burgh:  So cial  Work

In spec tion  Agency. 

Layard, R. & Dunn, J. (2009). A good child hood

search ing for val ues in a com pet i tive age.

Lon don:  Pen guin  Books. 

McCollam, A & Wood house, A. (2007). Fa mil iar

chal lenges,  prom is ing  so lu tions.  Ed in burgh

Con nect:  a  men tal  health  con sul ta tion

ser vice for res i den tial care staff work ing

with looked after and ac com mo dated

chil dren.  In ter na tional  Jour nal  of  Child  and

Fam ily  Wel fare,  10  (1-2), 44 – 58. 

McCollam, A., O’Sullivan, C., Mukkkala, M.,

Stengard, E. & Rowe, P. (2008a). Men tal

health in the EU. Key facts, fig ures and

ac tiv i ties.  A  back ground  paper.    Lux em bourg: 

Eu ro pean  Com mis sion. 

McCollam, A., Myers, F. & Wat son, J.(2008b).

Sup port for change. Ap proaches and mod els

for the de vel op ment of pro vi sion for chil dren

and young peo ple’s men tal health. Ed in burgh: 

Scot tish  De vel op ment  Cen tre  for  Men tal

Health. 

Meltzer, H., Lader, D., Corbin, T., Good man, R.

& Ford, T. (2004). The men tal health of

young peo ple looked after by local au thor i ties

in Scot land. Ed in burgh:  The  Sta tio nery

Of fice. 

Milligan, I. (2004). Looked after and

ac com mo dated  chil dren:  The  LEAP  Pro ject,

Ayr shire.  Glas gow:  Scot tish  In sti tute  for

Res i den tial  Child  Care. 

Scot tish  Ex ec u tive  (2004).  The men tal health of

chil dren and young peo ple: A frame work for

pre ven tion,  pro mo tion  and  care.  Ed in burgh:

Scot tish  Ex ec u tive. 

Scot tish  Ex ec u tive  (2006).  Get ting it right for

every child. Using the re sil ience ma trix to

make  sense  of  as sess ment  in for ma tion  and

eval u ate  chil dren’s  needs.  Ac cessed on 2nd

May 2009 from 

here

. 

Scot tish  Ex ec u tive  (2007).  Looked-after chil dren

and young peo ple: We can and must do

better. 

Ed in burgh:  The  Sta tio nery  Of fice.

Scot tish  Gov ern ment,  (2008).  Equally well.

Re port  of  the  min is te rial  task force on health

in equal i ties. 

Ac cessed on 5th May 2009

from 

here

. 

So cial Work In spec tion Agency (2006).

Ex traor di nary  lives.  Cre at ing  a  pos i tive  fu ture

for looked-after chil dren and young peo ple in

Scot land. 

Ed in burgh:  So cial  Work

In spec tion  Agency. 

Stan ley, N. (2007). Young peo ple’s and carers’

per spec tives on the men tal health needs of

looked  after  ad o les cents.  Child and Fam ily

So cial Work, 12

(2), 258 - 267.

From: The  Scot tish  Jour nal  of  Res i den tial

Child Care,  8 (2), Oc to ber 2009, pp. 1-10

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T

he in tense feel ing that

Pacco was alive, even if

this  was  com pletely  ir ra tio nal  and

seem ingly  im pos si ble,  quickly  be came  the

core  in gre di ent  of  vir tu ally  all  fam ily  in ter -

ac tion.  “Good morn ing”, my wife would

say; “how good can it be good for Pacco

in this freez ing cold”, I would an swer. 

“How was school, my love”? I would in -

quire gently of my daugh ter.  “We learned

about am phib i ans today”, she would an -

swer with tears in her eyes.  “Why is that

sad, my love”? I na ively asked.  “Be cause

am phib i ans get all crin kled up in the win -

ter and are al most dead until sum mer, and 

I think Pacco must be all crin kled up and

al most dead too, buh-huh-huh”.    “What

did you do today” we would in quire of

our teen age son; “I went to my friend’s

house where we played with his warm,

safe, well-fed and happy cats” came the

snarly re sponse.

The prob lem dur ing these dif fi cult days 

was sim ply this:  the en tire ev i dence of

Pacco being alive rested on some paw

prints in the snow and an in tu itive feel ing

on my part; the same in tu ition

that thought it wise to get this

cat from an on-line buy and sell web site

in the first place.  Under these cir cum -

stances, we were un sure about how much 

con crete ac tion we should be tak ing to

de ter mine  whether  Pacco  ac tu ally  was

around.  In a small town it is not that easy

to go up to neigh bours and try and ex plain 

to them that we had lost our cat weeks

ago and still thought he might be alive,

win ter  and  wild  pred a tors  not with stand -

ing.  We were anx ious, there fore, to avoid 

being la beled as the ‘crazy cat peo ple’.  All 

of these is sues were con fus ing, in deed,

dis ori ent ing  us.    We  were  im mo bi lized  by

the com plex ity of the sit u a tion, and for a

while, it seemed like negativity and sar -

casm were the best, and cer tainly the

eas i est way of cop ing with this.  Then one

day we pulled into our drive way and

there was Pacco on the front porch, look -

ing ter ri ble, skinny, dirty and di shev eled,

but clearly very much alive.

We screamed, we stut tered, we

hugged and high fived all around.  With out 

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relationship

Cat and Youth Care, Part 3

Kiaras Gharabaghi

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