Youth Centred Integrated Approach (YCIA) in Residential Child Care

Our therapeutic model (the YCIA) is a holistic approach based upon creating the foundations that promote positive health and emotional wellbeing for children and young people in residential care. These foundations create a secure, emotional base and enable children to form safe relationships with trusted adults, understand themselves and form a sense of identity, and establish meaning and purpose, through engagement in learning skills productive work and achievement. 

The model promotes positive mental health, and the prevention of ill health, while also providing the foundations for intervention and therapy for children who have complex needs and may have experienced trauma or disruptions to their early attachment relationships. 

 The YCIA is embedded within Birribi home care teams, through a rolling programme of training, supervision, team case supervision and support for professional development. Training sessions are delivered by clinicians and experienced trainers.

The aims of our training programme are:

• promote consistent child focused practice
• provide a shared practice language and methods of working
• increase team communication and staff motivation at work
• put theory into practice
• promote the idea that every social interaction is a potential intervention

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