Effectiveness of a trauma‐informed intervention in a deinstitutionalization programme in rural Rwanda

Abstract

AbstractRwanda established a programme to end institutional care and transition children to family‐based care. As part of their process in a rural area of the country, caregivers who reunited with or adopted a child from institutional care received training in a trauma‐informed intervention (Trust‐Based Relational Intervention® [TBRI®]). To evaluate the potential usefulness of this training, a mixed‐methods, retrospective design was used to examine caregiver‐perceived changes among their reunited/adopted children from pre‐TBRI training to the present day. Results revealed significant decreases in perceived challenging behaviours and trauma symptoms over time. Results from the phenomenological analysis demonstrated that caregivers perceived the training to be effective at equipping them with appropriate parenting strategies and reducing their children's struggles in the home. Findings suggest that training in a trauma‐informed intervention, such as TBRI, may be useful to equip caregivers with strategies to meet the emotional needs of children who are reunited or adopted into families. Success of deinstitutionalization requires programming to support quality family‐based care that meets both the emotional and physical needs of children, and efforts must be made to ensure these resources are included when reuniting or adopting children into families.