Therapeutic Residential Care: Different Population, Different Purpose, Different Costs

Abstract

At the present time in Australia, there is much discussion about attachment and trauma-informed therapeutic residential care (TRC) programmes. The discussion includes a continuing reference to the high cost of this form of care by comparison to foster family care. This comparison assumes that both services serve the same population which this paper disputes. The emergence of TRC as one option in the continuum of care also raises issues about how a residential care (RC) workforce might be educated and trained for these programmes. This is particularly important given the mental health and behavioural difficulties the population of young people referred to TRC programmes, frequently display.