RAISING CAIN
Caring for Troubled Youngsters/Repairing Our Troubled System

1. THE CHILDREN: TROUBLED LIKE CAIN, MARKED BY THEIR PAST
   Eating disorders
   Vengefulness
   Feeling of being a victim
   Inability to profit from experience
   Stealing
   Chaotic behavior
   Revolving scapegoat behavior
   Non-communicativeness
   Emtional immaturity
   Sense of entitlement
   Family phobia
   Lying
   Self-parenting behavior
   Loss sensitivity
2. OUR FOSTER AND ADOPTIVE FAMILIES
   Foster and adoptive mothers as victims
   Coping with the least favored child
   Fish bowl existence
   Other children as targets
   Dealing with occasional unhelpful, helping professional
   Increased demand to collaborate with birth parents
   Subclinical problems in foster and adoptive parents
3. FAMILY BASED STRATEGIES FOR HELPING TROUBLED YOUNGSTERS
   New model for delivery of mental health services
   Interpreting the underlying meaning of behavior problems
   Questions whic guide strategy building
4. SAMPLE STRATEGIES
   Adopting your hormonal teenaged son's girlfriend
   Gentle shaping
   Disarming with humor
   Putting words in their mouths
   Pledge of allegiance
   Coming half the distance
   Description, interpretation, confrontation, explanation
   Daily press conference
   Lullaby for the lonely heart
   Pavlov's blankey
   Ask me no questions
   Make a wish
   My backpack on my back
   Fun-filled eating
   Midnight snack at 3 a.m.
   My voice journeys with you
5. RAISING CAIN WITH THE SYSTEM
   Managed care
   Goal of family preservation
   Forcing adoptions of extraordinary needs children
   Lack of specialized mental health services
   Misguided practices in placement decision
6. RAISING CAIN BETTER
   Concurrent planning
   Twelve factors to weigh in placement decision
   "Circle of families" model
   Collective wisdom of parent support groups
   Respite care