Developing a group-based psychoeducation intervention for adoptive parents and foster carers in a specialist child and adolescent mental health service setting

Children and young people in foster and adoptive families are considered more vulnerable to a high level of mental health need when compared to peers who are not care-experienced or adopted. Acceptance of this view amongst clinical providers and policy makers has necessitated the development of specialist provision and dedicated care pathways within child and adolescent mental health services. In this provision, practitioner-initiated quality improvement projects help in appraising the effectiveness of clinical interventions in local contexts, as well as identifying areas for service learning and practice reflection. This article reports on the evaluation of a mentalisation-based psychoeducation group intervention for adoptive parents and foster carers. The evaluation activity took place in a single child and adolescent mental health service setting, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the intervention being implemented online via videoconferencing. In the article, after introducing the intervention (based on the Family Minds model), an analysis of clinical data collected pre- and post-intervention is reported. Few results of the analysis regarding the two pre- and post-measures reached statistical significance, indicating only changes in the magnitude of stress in the parent/carer-child system. A series of reflections are posed that consider what this finding means in developing fit-for-purpose support for adoptive parents and foster carers in child and adolescent mental health service contexts.