At CareVisions we provide therapeutic environments which are modelled upon ordinary family homes because we believe that these provide the most effective means of meeting the needs of the young people described above. They do so because they incorporate the vital components required in the recovery process; safety and containment; and opportunities for the development of emotionally significant attachments.

In essence we attempt to replicate the experience of parenting which the young people should have enjoyed in infancy, to ‘therapeutically re-parent’ young people who have had catastrophic experiences of being parented resulting in the severe impairment of their social, emotional and behavioural development.

We believe that exposure to care such as this will enable the young people to develop trust, to reflect upon their earlier experiences within the context of secure and emotionally significant relationships and hence to make new meaning of those experiences. We know that the young people hold within themselves a narrative about their lives which is often fragmented and punctuated with despair, shame, rejection and failure.

We therefore seek to engage with them on a profoundly emotional level and in so doing to enable them to create a new coherent narrative about their lives, and to develop a positive, integrated sense of themselves.

Environment

All of our services are based in ordinary houses, maintained to a high standard, with furnishings and décor which is domestic in style. The majority are located in beautiful rural settings, but within easy reach of larger towns and community facilities. It is within these environments that we provide the young people with 24/7 therapeutic care.

Our houses are warm, homely, welcoming, nurturing and un-institutional as we want the young people to view them as their homes from which they derive a strong sense of belonging. As such, they provide the secure base from which they can embark on the recovery process.

All of our services are characterised by high ratios of care staff and low numbers of young people. The largest accommodate only four whilst the smallest offer particularly high levels of care and support to just one young person. We are therefore able to provide genuinely child-centred, bespoke care packages which are tailored to the individual needs of the young people.

The houses provide the necessary degree of structure, boundaries and limits required to minimise the levels of stress and stimulation experienced by the young people in order to stabilise their presenting behaviours.

Within these environments they therefore experience strong feelings of safety, routine, consistency and predictability coupled with extremely high levels of individual attention, fun, warmth and nurturing, all of which is conducive to the development of emotionally significant relationships with their carers.

Often, for the first time in their lives, the young people experience the level of attentiveness, emotional availability, containment and parental preoccupation which they should have enjoyed, and which is so vital for their healthy development, in their infancy.

Each house is managed by a House Manager, supported by a Depute Manager and team of six care staff who take a great sense of pride and ownership in ‘their’ house which also contributes to developing a strong sense of belonging within the young people.

All of our staff are selected on the basis of their commitment, positive attitudes, resilience, shared values and desire to support and work with the young people in a manner consistent with our approach. They are trained to have an understanding of the impact of trauma and abuse and disrupted or impaired development and to have an appreciation of the therapeutic impact which they can have through their daily interactions and relationships with the young people they look after.

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