The CARE Therapeutic Framework is an evidence-informed framework for understanding what key experiences children need to have to grow up happy, healthy, and well-adjusted, and achieve their developmental potential.

Drawn from psychological science, the CARE Therapeutic Framework was first published as a conceptual model in the Second Edition of A Short Introduction to Attachment and Attachment Disorder.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework represents what is the desired therapeutic environment promoted in the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care; the author’s therapeutic foster care program that is currently in its fourth year of implementation among TUSLA general and relative foster carers in Donegal, Ireland. Recently, Triple-A received favourable mention in a report by the independent inspection authority for health and social care services in Ireland*.

(*see HIQA Monitoring Event No. 0020090, April 2018).

The CARE Therapeutic Framework is the stand-alone Model of Care for South Australia’s Kinship CARE Project and other Secure Start programs; including Child CARE, a program for long day care and early learning centres.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework places Connection are the centre of all endeavour for and on behalf of children. The CARE Therapeutic Framework recognises the central role played by connection in supporting physical and mental health and regulating behaviour. In addition, the CARE Therapeutic Framework seeks to enrich children’s experience of the consistency of their care environment and the accessibility, responsiveness and emotional connectedness of their caregiver(s) – the CARE Model.

The Care Therapeutic Framework is both a Model of Care and a Model of Practice. The CARE Therapeutic Framework incorporates complementary training for professionals who support caregivers of children. Caregiver fidelity to the Framework is supported by their own experience of CARE from professionals trained in the Framework.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework is a strengths-based approach that draws participants’ attention to conventional aspects of caregiving and relating that support optimal developmental outcomes for children.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework does not seek to replace other approaches. Rather, the CARE Therapeutic Framework offers a back-to-basics approach that forms a solid foundation to build on. As a strengths-based approach, the CARE Therapeutic Framework complements other strengths-based approaches.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework includes:

• An embedded self-care framework
• An evaluation framework.

The CARE Therapeutic Framework supports the development of a tailored therapeutic CARE Plan, for your setting and for individual children. CARE promotes trusting connections and growth!

The CARE Therapeutic Framework is suitable for:

• Schools
• Alternate Care Settings
• Long day care and early learning centres

For a short introduction to the CARE Therapeutic Framework, please click here.