Meaningful natural mentoring relationship characteristics and informal therapeutic life space interactions for youth in care

Section A
A review of the literature comprising a systematic search, narrative review and critical appraisal to answer the question: “What makes the ideal mentor for youth in care?”. A search of four electronic databases and relevant reference lists yielded 12 papers. Despite methodological and ethical challenges, the reviewed papers gave good insight into the
features of the natural mentoring relationship valued by youth, highlighting several common characteristics, such as empathy, trust, authenticity, and role modelling, with most papers of at least acceptable quality. To further evidence what makes the ideal mentor for youth in care, more rigorous research is required across various settings with greater focus on diversity of perspective.

Section B
A qualitative study exploring how Therapeutic Care Workers (TCWs) interpret their informal interactions with children in their ‘life space' (Steckley & Smith, 2011). This qualitative study reports data from in-depth interviews with eight female TCWs (mean age 32, SD = 6.7) currently working in one of two therapeutic communities. Four superordinate themes are reported: Getting into the child's mind; Evincing the child they are in my mind; What we have together; and,The difference that makes the difference. The findings highlight
TCWs' beliefs that, because of their special relationship with the child and their genuine love for them, virtually every interaction with them is therapeutic.

Section C
Appendix of supporting material.