Reative Attachment Disorder (RAD)

HFKs considers accepting children with Reactive Attachment Disorder into its specialized foster care program who are eligible for long term foster care, whose parental rights are/will be terminated, or are currently up for adoption. HFKs believe that healing a child with RAD under these circumstances is most productive because the bond, which develops between the foster parent(s) and the child is more authentic, the child may grieve the loss of their biological family without the confusion of family contacts, and the relationships developed within the foster home do not have to be transferred or disrupted due to reunification.

Since RAD is a relational, interpersonal disorder, the foster parents are the primary healing agent for the child. A child with RAD must be re-parented and taught to trust. HFKs clinical staff and their therapists work closely together to help the foster parents create a healing, structured, non-reactive environment within the home. Foster parents are trained to identify and not respond to the negative, self-defeating, relationship sabotaging, inner model of family and caregivers that the RAD child brings with them to the placement. Since children with RAD have known only trauma and disappointment from caregiver, foster parents are taught to become a secure and steady base for their child by being: emotionally available & dependable, sensitive, attuned to the child's needs, consistently responsive to behaviors & the underlying unmet desire or issue communicated by the behavior, as well as, helpful and active teachers of interpersonal norms and expectations.