Foster carers are losing out on financial supports and pension contributions although most look after children until they are around 23 years of age, an Oireachtas committee was told today. The Irish Foster Care Association presented to the joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands in relation to foster carers and pensions.

This paper describes a mixed methods approach that was applied to evaluate the complex intervention Fostering Connections: The Trauma-Informed Foster Care Programme, a recently developed trauma-informed psychoeducational intervention for foster carers in Ireland.

Many young people in foster care experience significant mental health difficulties, leading to attendance at services where engaging them in psychotherapy that adequately meets their diverse needs is an ongoing challenge. This Ireland-based study illuminates the inherent challenges of working with this population, while informing practice about how to engage with young people in foster care in a meaningful and helpful way.

This study explores the lived experiences of care leavers in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northern Ireland’s Children’s commissioner has expressed “great concern” about the lack of progress on mental health services for vulnerable children after figures revealed that up to 17 looked after children died over the past five years.

This BBC news article details the emotional and psychological abuse discovered during the public inquiry into historical institutional abuse in the Church and state-run institutions for children in Northern Ireland.

A “destroyer of lives”. That is what a nun called adoption rights activist Susan Lohan when she sought answers from the religious order that brokered her adoption. Instead of being given the truth, Lohan was told not to ask questions. She was born in 1964 to one of thousands of unmarried mothers forcibly separated from their children – usually women who had no choice but adoption due to their circumstances.

It is starting to be recognised that young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities making the transition to adulthood from out-of-home care require focused attention to understand their needs and service requirements. Within the UK jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (NI), young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities are over-represented in the population of care leavers and yet very little is known about their specific needs. The overall aim of the study reported here was to examine the profile of care leavers with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities in order to better inform how best to configure child and adult service systems to meet their transitional needs.

This conference, hosted by Tearfund Ireland, will explore the topic of Care Reform and why volunteering in orphanages is changing. 

This paper suggests a new framework, Trauma-informed Foster Care that was developed to reflect the experience of the Irish foster care system, may be helpful to support more collaborative practices between foster carers and social workers in an Irish context.