Food for Thought: Food based training, assessment and intervention tools for carers of looked after young people

食物和围绕食物的社会习俗是我们自我意识和我们与他人关系的核心(Lupton，1996)。食物在很大程度上象征着关怀和养育，最终也是维持生命的象征(Morse，1994)。研究强调了儿童和成人在互动中使用食物的方式(Jackson，2009)。寄宿和寄养涉及许多任务，其中食物往往可以发挥重要作用(Punch等人，2009b)。然而，它的核心是工作人员/照顾者和儿童之间和内部存在的情感、关系、权力和控制问题，这些问题往往通过一系列食物做法来表现和谈判。例如，仅仅是照顾者知道孩子在茶中摄入了什么，就可能传达出一种归属感和联系。因此，对食物的关注可以洞察儿童和成年人之间的关系，带来他们自己的历史、记忆、感受和应对策略。因此，食物既可以被理解为一种物理对象，也可以被理解为一种社会现象，它通过日常互动中的不同用途来承载和改变意义(Charon，2007)。该项目建立在ESRC食品和护理研究(FACS)的基础上。儿童基金会的一项重要产出是向苏格兰所有寄宿儿童之家分发了一本手册，旨在提高人们对食物及其在这种环境中如何使用的认识。自那时以来，在进行一项试点影响研究的同时，还举办了一系列讲座和讲习班，以训练受众。从这一点上很明显，通过观察食物，一个人可以对单位的日常世界以及儿童的个人生活有重大的洞察。然而，工作人员热衷于开展进一步的工作，将调查结果转变为一种更适用的工具，以加强他们对儿童的评估，并考虑采取积极干预的方法。此外，还收到了寄养和领养照料者的反馈，他们听说或读到了这项工作，并认为这项工作与他们的角色有关。该项目的一个核心问题是改善个别受照看儿童与其照料者之间的微观关系，利用食物更好地理解行为、反应，并形成支持每个儿童的干预措施和方法(例如，帮助照顾者和组织批判性地思考为什么儿童可能拒绝他们的食物)。一家私营寄养公司和一家地方当局)将共同开展四个阶段的工作：1.设计一个在照料者/工作人员讲习班上编制的培训包(改编自《儿童保育手册》)，使工作人员/照料者了解食物的象征性使用，以及如何将其应用于从过去的创伤/损失中对儿童的“治疗”/“恢复”。b)一个“评估”工具，侧重于思考个别家庭或儿童及其食物使用情况。A)试行提供培训和使用互动评估工具。b)促进“内部”同行支持小组，这些小组将讨论评估工具的结果，其成员将共同思考如何使用食物或改变食物做法，以提高提供的护理水平/类型。评估a)监测培训包、评估工具和持续的同行支助小组的使用情况。B)参加同伴支持小组成员提供的“新工人”培训，并对此进行反思。推广a)国家发布会材料。b)国际信息社会研究机构在其数据库中提供培训包、评估工具和同行支持模式。C)支持CELCIS将培训、评估工具和同伴模式纳入对苏格兰寄宿和寄养照料者的更一般培训，并(与斯特林大学一起)为更广泛的英国设计CPD短期课程。d)向FACS数据库发送产出简报。

Food and the social practices that surround it are central to our sense of self and our relations to others (Lupton, 1996). Food is deeply symbolic of caring and nurturing and ultimately of sustaining life (Morse, 1994). Research has highlighted the ways in which food is used by children and adults in their interactions (Jackson, 2009). Residential and foster care involves myriad tasks in which food can often play a significant role (Punch et al., 2009b). However, central to it are the feelings, relationships, issues of power and control that exist between and within the staff/carers and children and which are often played out and negotiated through a range of food practices. For example, simply a carer's knowledge of what a child takes in their tea may communicate a sense of belonging and connection. Thus, a focus on food can provide insight into how children and adults relate to one another, bringing with them their own histories, memories, feelings and strategies for coping. Food can therefore be understood both as a physical object, and a social phenomenon which carries and alters meaning through the different uses to which it can be put within everyday interaction (Charon, 2007). This project builds on the ESRC Food and Care study (FaCS). A key FaCS output was a handbook given to all residential children's homes in Scotland which aimed at raising awareness of food and how it is used in such settings. Since then, a number of presentations and workshops to practice audiences have been held alongside a pilot impact study. From this it was clear that by looking at food one could gain significant insight into the everyday world of the unit as well as to the individual lives of the children. However, staff were keen that further work be undertaken to turn the findings into a more applicable tool for enhancing their assessment of the child as well as considering ways to positively intervene. In addition, feedback was received from foster and adoptive carers who had heard or read about the work and who thought it had relevance to their role. A central concern of this project is to improve the micro relationship between individual looked after children and their carers using food to develop better understandings of behaviours, responses and shaping intervention and approaches to supporting each child (e.g. helping carers and organisations to think critically about why children might reject their food).The project team (involving a voluntary organisation, a private fostering company and a local authority) will work together on a four stage process:1. Devising a) A training package developed in workshops with carers/staff (adapted from the FaCS handbook) which will equip staff/carers with knowledge of the symbolic use of food and how this might be applied in the 'treatment' /'recovery' of children from past trauma/loss.b) An 'assessment' tool which focuses thinking on an individual household or child and their use of food.2. Deliveringa) Piloting the delivery of training and the use of the interactive assessment tool.b) Facilitating 'in house' peer support groups which would discuss the findings from the assessment tool and whose members would, together, think of ways that food could be used or food practices changed to improve the level/type of care being delivered.3. Evaluatinga) Monitoring the use of the training package, assessment tool and the ongoing peer support groups. b) Attending and reflecting on 'new worker' training as delivered by members of the peer support group.4. Rolling outa) National Launch event of materials.b) IRISS offering the training package, assessment tool and peer support model on their database. c) Supporting CELCIS to embed the training, assessment tool and peer model into more generic training for residential and foster carers in Scotland and to devise (along with University of Stirling) a CPD short course for the wider UK.d) Sending output briefing to FaCS database.