Assessing Attachment in Health and Social Care
This course aims to equip practitioners with a working knowledge of attachment theory in a developmental context and to develop practitioners’ confidence and competence when needing to assess attachment in a variety of practice contexts.
An understanding of Attachment Theory is essential to social care and health professionals working with children and families. Our first relationships lay the foundation for our future relationships and ways of being in the world. Attachment theory is essentially a theory of personality development.
A variety of teaching methods will be used. Participants will have the opportunity to view carer/child interaction demonstrating different attachment patterns on video, there will be opportunities to explore their own attachment relationships and consider how this impacts on their assessment of others and they will learn and practice techniques and skills that illicit information about attachments to inform assessment and planning.
Course content:
- Overview of Attachment Theory and the function of attachment behaviour
- Attachment in a developmental context
- Assessing attachment patterns in infancy, pre-school, school age and adolescent children
- Impact on the couple's relationship and ability to parent/care for children
- Impact of family life stages and transitions on attachment patterns
- Methods for generating information on attachment
- Use of formal and informal tools to assess attachment
- Impact of culture and belief systems on attachment. Understanding parents'/carers' intentions
- Attachment patterns as an opportunity for family change