Carelink
Carelink is a multi-disciplinary team with practitioners from a variety of professional backgrounds : psychotherapy, art and drama therapy, family therapy, social work, psychology, plus input from psychiatry – ongoing research is integral to the team.
Age Range
0-18 years
The Service
Carelink is a mental health and therapeutic service for adopted and looked after children, their carers and their professional network. The team provides:
- A therapeutic service to children and young people who are in care
- Services to adopted children, to assist with the transition from foster care as well as ongoing interventions where appropriate.
- Support and advice to foster carers and foster carer training
- Consultation/advice to the professional network on care planning, therapeutic needs, placements, and transitions.
- Drop-In consultation service to the CLA Social Work teams
Interventions include:
- Individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy
- Family Therapy
- Art, drama and play therapy
- Specialist under 5s input
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
- Social skills/behavioural
- interventions
- Child Attachment Interview
- Story Stem assessments
- Psychometric Testing
- Foster Carer Support Service
- Training for foster carers
- Consultation to professional networks
- Psychiatric assessment and review
Criteria for Access to Service
Children need to have been in care for at least 3 months, placed either in or out of borough, and there should be a plan for them to remain in care. Support is also provided to foster carers, kinship carers and adopting parents.
Accessibility of this Service
Most referrals come from the child’s social worker, but referrals are also taken from GPs, Community Paediatricians, and foster carers, (liaising with the social worker to ensure that we have consent for treatment).