Take Two - Third Evaluation Report More than Words ... - Berry Street

and Therapeutic Residential Care are usually located
in Take Two sites and with the partner organisation,
including Secure Welfare and Hurstbridge Farm.
Material resources and equipment
As Take Two is not a case management service it does
not provide material resources to the client group, but
may engage with other services for these needs to be
met. The equipment needed to do the work can be
categorised into functional, therapeutic, research and
training equipment.
Functional equipment used by Take Two supports the
day-to-day service, such as all clinical staff having access
to vehicles, computers, other of ce equipment and
mobile phones. Another type of functional equipment
is the documents used by clinical staff for recording
case notes, assessment reports and other recording.
The Take Two Client Information System (T2-CIS) will
be an important aspect of functional equipment once in
operation and even in its early stages has contributed
to the service’s ability to accept referrals.
Research equipment used by Take Two includes
statistical and other software (such as SPSS and
Endnote), and access to extensive library data bases
and libraries through the partner organisations of La
Trobe University and Mindful. Although these are
primarily used by the teams in the knowledge area,
all Take Two staff have access to the Mindful library.
Training equipment includes DVDs, other audiovisual
equipment, training activity sheets, feedback sheets
and physical resources, such as training kits that assist
in transporting training materials from one workshop to
the next.
Therapeutic equipment includes toys, games and
other play equipment used in therapy, clinical outcome
measures (some of which need to be regularly
purchased), and activities that can be used with clients.
3.6 Therapeutic care
The When Care is not Enough report (Morton et al.,
1999) identi ed a need to work therapeutically with
children in the care system. As noted earlier, this report
recommended a number of therapeutic care initiatives.
When Take Two was rst established, a recognised
need was to provide a senior clinical role within the
DHS Secure Welfare Service. In effect, this was Take
Two’s rst therapeutic specialist, although not named
as such at the time. Take Two also quickly realised that
much of its work in the regional and Aboriginal teams
was working directly with the foster parents, kinship
carers, residential care staff and parents. Take Two
contributed substantially to the DHS-led policy and
program development regarding therapeutic foster care
and therapeutic residential care. Each of the following
initiatives has built on the work undertaken within the
broader sector but also with the work of Take Two in
Secure Welfare and the regional clinical teams.
The recommendations by Morton and colleagues (1999)
regarding therapeutic care, though not initially funded,
have subsequently begun to be funded by DHS and
implemented across the state. Many, but not all of the
therapeutic care initiatives, involve Take Two as the
therapeutic specialist in partnership with care providers.
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3.6.1 The Circle Program
Implemented in mid 2007, the Circle Program — a
therapeutic approach to foster care — was introduced
to better meet the needs of children in foster care.
The Circle Program is part of the strategic aim of the
government to build a system of home-based care
where all children receive the therapeutic response
they require when they require it and to develop “a
therapeutic system not just a therapeutic model”
(Department of Human Services, 2009b, 6). The
Circle Program model endeavours to give effect to the
principles contained in the Children, Youth and Families
Act 2005 and the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005
with the core principle of the best interests of the child.
The Circle Program has a set of articulated principles and
conceptual framework. The conceptual framework has
four interacting components: the child is at the centre
of the program; the care team to facilitate the ability of
all those in the care environment to effectively support
the child to recover from the effects of trauma; the
care environment including the microsystems of home,
family, school and networks; and the engagement
of the child at all stages. A goal of the program is to
promote timely reuni cation between the children and
family or alternative long-term stable care (Department
of Human Services, 2009b).
The Circle Program was implemented through
partnerships of CSOs and therapeutic services. Take
Two tendered successfully within these partnerships in
four regions as the therapeutic specialist of the team
with CSOs as the lead agency. The detailed guidelines
for implementation ensure consistency of approach.
The outcome measures for children utilised in the Circle
Program include four which are utilised in the Take
Two outcome framework, hence Take Two workers are
experienced in their administration.
Take Two therapeutic specialists are members of
care teams in the Circle Program. As the therapeutic
specialist, Take Two has speci c roles which include
face to face contact with the carer at least weekly and
to take the lead in the assessment of the child and
development and monitoring of individual therapeutic
care plans. Take Two with the CSO also engages in
the assessment of therapeutic foster carers following
training. The process of recruitment, assessment,
training and accreditation of carers is key to the Circle
Program and is actively shared between Take Two and
the placement agency.
The Circle Program is another Take Two activity which
engages and provides opportunity to build upon the
relationship between Take Two and child protection and
the broader care system for the bene t of the child.
3.6.2 Hurstbridge Farm
The concept of applying trauma and attachment theory
to interventions with children who have been abused
has also informed the development of Hurstbridge Farm
which was initiated by DHS in mid 2007 (Holmes, 2007).
In 2004 DHS Eastern Metropolitan region and North
and Western Metropolitan region with the support of
the DHS Central Child Protection and Family Services
Branch purchased a 33-acre property in Hurstbridge
(outer northern suburb of Melbourne) to establish a
therapeutic model of care for young people 12—14.9
years of age. The aim of Hurstbridge Farm is to make
a difference in the lives of young adolescents who
Frederico, Jackson, & Black (2010) “More than Words” – Take Two Third Evaluation Report, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia