Abstract
Reviewed by Panos Vostanis, Professor of Child Mental Health, University of Leicester, UK
Vulnerable children and young people have multiple and complex needs that require multifaceted and interconnected interventions. Such complexity has notoriously challenged theories, research, interventions and training materials that have struggled to capture those needs in their entirety by focusing on particular aspects. Knowledge has gradually evolved, both from the implementation of frameworks, policy and evidence, and from the emergence of themes and lessons from practice and service user experiences. The integration of such perspectives remains challenging for any new text, but this is a challenge that the editors of this book have mastered admirably.
One can view the book in different ways. It is logically structured, starting with an organisational and service context, followed by the extensive experiences of adults who faced trauma as children, and concluded with therapeutic and service applications by practitioners. Alternatively, we could absorb the fascinating narratives that transcend all chapters. Or, we could take away practical and clinical strategies in supporting children, young people and their carers. What I found particularly refreshing though was the seamless flow between all these components, and the simplified yet engaging message of how systems and practice should be centred on the child’s vulnerability and inner world.
Stories and case studies by adults on their childhood or subsequent experiences are inter-mixed with practitioners’ perspectives on various aspects of the therapeutic process. Different frameworks (from neurodevelopment to attachment theory) come across as complementary rather than polarised and inform practice and service development. Both commonalities and specific applications are discussed in relation to different vulnerable groups, such as children in kinship and foster care, adoptive families and unaccompanied minors. Case and personal material are presented in a reflective rather than emotive style, which makes their impact even more convincing.
Ultimately, it is the briefest of chapters in the heart of the manuscript that sums up eloquently vulnerable children’s turmoil between despair and hope, and the implications for all those involved in their care. The author, Chloe Charles, recalls her poems as a looked after teenager, which mirror her painful emotions (‘broken machine’), fear of coming in touch with them and sharing them with adults (‘mask’), anger about the past (‘letter to my human incubator’), rediscovering trust of other humans through her foster carer (‘a special woman’) and generating hope through positive relationships in her new life (‘finally loved’). There is a lot more to this book than these poems that will appeal to caregivers and practitioners. Nevertheless, if the reader distils the content of the text into these poetic lines and manages to hold together their conflicting emotions, s/he will have gone a long way towards helping the next vulnerable child they come in contact with. And this is no negligible contribution.