‘By Listening Hard’: Developing a Service-User Feedback System for Adopted and Fostered Children in Receipt of Mental Health Services

Abstract

Adopted and looked after children are often excluded from service-user involvement. The purpose of the study discussed here by Julie Davies, John Wright, Susan Drake and Jennifer Bunting was, therefore, to develop methodologies to facilitate the inclusion of junior-school-aged children to reflect on their experience of participating in psychological therapy. Exclusively recruiting this group enabled us to develop age-specific techniques. The clinical implications for therapeutic practice and an effective methodology to ascertain children's perceptions of therapy are discussed. The overarching message is that children with disrupted attachments can be engaged in reflective discussions about mental health services when a methodology is developed specifically for them. This allows us to view services ‘through the eyes’ of children (Department of Health, 2004a).