Many people are motivated to become foster carers but feel uncertain about their ability to support children who have faced significant challenges in their early lives.
MacKillop Family Services’ newly revised Trauma-Informed Care training equips new and current MacKillop carers with the knowledge, tools and confidence to provide safe, nurturing environments for children in care.
Foster carers play a vital role helping children to heal. Trauma can affect a child’s brain development, behaviour and emotional wellbeing, and responding with empathy and consistency is key. Our Trauma-informed care training offers practical strategies to recognise trauma triggers, reduce challenging behaviours and build trusting relationships that promote healing and resilience.
A core strength of this training is that it’s been developed in collaboration with foster carers. Their voices, experiences and insights have shaped the content, making it a wholly relevant and supportive resource. Carers also feature in the training videos, sharing real-life perspectives that help others feel prepared and connected.
Carer Natalie Pryor was one of the foster carers who gave her input to the training package: “Understanding trauma is essential for supporting children in care. Trauma-informed care training helped me better understand the impact of trauma on children’s development and behaviour. I feel more confident responding with empathy and consistency after completing the training and I highly recommend it to other carers."
The training is delivered through a flexible mix of self-paced e-learning and live facilitated sessions. Carers complete four online modules in their own time, and then participate in three live sessions led by MacKillop’s clinical practitioners. These sessions offer opportunities to ask questions, reflect on the material and relate it to personal experiences.
Training topics include:
- Sanctuary Introduction – an overview of MacKillop’s Sanctuary Model, with practical tools to use with children in care. Sanctuary is a whole-of-organisation framework that helps ensure safe environments for children, young people, carers and families – and the staff who support them.
- Sanctuary: Caring for Carers – strategies to support carer wellbeing and resilience.
- Theories that Guide Therapeutic Care – exploring child development, and trauma and attachment theories to better understand children’s needs.
- Providing Therapeutic Care – practical approaches to respond to trauma and support healing.
All foster and kinship carers with MacKillop will undertake Trauma-informed care training, and those who’ve completed it previously will have access to a refresher course. The e-learning modules and session bookings are available through the Carer Learning Hub which is accessible to all MacKillop foster carers.