The Czech Republic is one of the last post-communist countries of the former Soviet Bloc that have retained the system of institutional care.
Although some children live in foster and adoptive families here, many children still have to grow up without it.
The system supporting foster and adoptive families is still in the making. Only a few years ago it was enacted that all foster parents have to be supported. As a result many organizations specializing in their support have emerged across the whole country. Social workers are regularly visiting foster families and encountering educational problems caused by attachment disorders.
Formerly, such problems remained hidden and the children later ended in psychiatric wards or special detention institutions for adolescents causing problems. Nowadays, it is possible to screen them earlier, their families can get support and therapeutic aid in time, and therapists specialized in curing attachment disorders are required.
However, DDP as an effective therapy of attachment disorders is generally neither known nor used in this country. This was why the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs decided a year ago to organize a two-year project of training in foster family care to be attained by 40 psychologists and 40 social workers.
Thus it has become possible to create and develop a community of therapists and social workers who understand attachment problems and have necessary tools for curing them.
Immediately we asked Dr. Dan Hughes to participate in the project and were very pleased by his accepting our offer.
He came to Prague twice in 2017, in February 6-9 to deliver the DDP Level One training to our psychologists, and again in July 4-7 to deliver together with Edwina Grant the DDP Level Two.
Our psychologists are enthusiastic about the method and try to use it, already with some success. The DDP training has been quite an experience for us, giving us hope that we will be able to really help the children we work with every day.
PhDr. Jana Kovařovicová
Prague, the Czech Republic
