Cheltenham Cottage Home

Cheltenham Cottage Home was opened in 1976, as a therapeutic cottage for children. It was run by the Adelaide Central Methodist Mission/Adelaide Central Mission. Cheltenham Cottage was one of a number of smaller group homes established by the Methodist Church in the mid to late 1970s, as a response to the government’s push to close large congregate care institutions and replace them with smaller group care. When the Adelaide Central Mission closed the Lentara institution in Magill, it established a number of cottage homes in suburban areas. The Cheltenham Cottage Home appears to have closed in the mid 1980s.
more specialised care. The Cheltenham Cottage Home appears to have closed in the mid 1980s.

Cheltenham Cottage was a therapeutic cottage Home based on the Teacher-Parent model, first developed by researchers at the University of Kansas. The Teacher-Parent model involved trained teaching parents (usually a married couple) living with a group of around 6 to 8 young people in a setting designed to be ‘as much like a normal family home as possible’ (Weir & Ford, 1977). The Teacher-Parent program utilised a highly structured token economy to help “delinquent” youths to modify their behaviours. Residents could earn points by completing tasks like cleaning their rooms, doing dishes or greeting visitors at the door. Points were lost as punishment for inappropriate behaviour. The young person could use the points they’d earned to exchange for “privileges” such as watching television, snacks or activities outside of the Home.

A journal article published in 1977 about the token economy at Cheltenham Cottage concluded that the system was shown to be effective in modifying young people’s behaviour in the Home, as well as outside the treatment facility (Weir & Ford).

In 2022, the Teaching Family Model (TFM) is still used a therapeutic tool to help children and young people in out-of-home care to learn new behaviours by observing and imitating others (Berry Street, 2022).