Este estudo aborda as possibilidades de vir a ser sujeito em uma instituição de acolhimento, considerando as possíveis implicações para a criança que se encontra separada de sua família de origem. Neste sentido, é importante considerarmos as diferentes questões que podem acompanhar a criança no percurso de sua constituição, atentando para as dificuldades que demarcam este processo, muitas vezes oriundas de falhas nas suas primeiras relações. Buscamos, então, uma compreensão acerca de como se dá a constituição subjetiva no âmbito do abrigo, utilizando para tal uma metodologia de avaliação, prevenção e promoção de saúde mental na primeira infância, que já vem sendo utilizada em outros contextos. Assim, este trabalho propôs, através dos IRDIs (Indicadores Clínicos de Risco para o Desenvolvimento Infantil), a realização de uma operação de leitura da relação que se estabelece entre os bebês (de até 18 meses) e seus respectivos cuidadores (agentes educadores), que se encontram acolhidos em abrigos residenciais da Fundação de Proteção Especial do Rio Grande do Sul, no município de Porto Alegre. Nesta conjuntura, nos apoiamos nos pressupostos teóricos sustentados por Winnicott, de modo que suas contribuições nos auxiliaram a refletir sobre as possibilidades que cada bebê encontra ao se deparar privado da convivência com sua mãe/família. O processo de pesquisa abarcou diferentes momentos: I. Encontro de sensibilização e capacitação para os agentes educadores; II. Visitas a sete abrigos residências (em média quatro a cada casa), onde puderam ser observados dez bebês; III. Rodas de conversa com os agentes educadores responsáveis pelos cuidados dos bebês participantes. Assim, buscamos, a partir de conceitos fundamentais da teoria winnicottiana, apoio para refletir acerca do que se mostrou em evidência, de modo que as concepções de ambiente e de (des)continuidade dos cuidados serviram como base nesta leitura e construção de significados, o que permitiu a emergência de alguns apontamentos: Mesmo ressaltando o direito da continuidade dos cuidados que toda criança possui, a separação da mãe/família não necessariamente se faz, por si só, traumática. Isso nos conduziu a refletir acerca de que lugar ocupa o ambiente abrigo para estas crianças, tendo em vista que o fato de termos encontrado resultados satisfatórios (uns mais que outros) na leitura dos bebês a partir dos IRDIs nos permite inferir que de alguma forma este contexto opera de modo suficiente na subjetivação dos bebês. Compreendemos, portanto, que mesmo sendo portadores de uma marca primeira (privação da família de origem), existe grande possibilidade de o bebê se desenvolver plenamente, desde que possa estabelecer um encontro com alguém/ambiente disponível para sustentá-lo, para proporcionar uma experiência de continuidade e para impedir que seu sofrimento inicial impossibilite seu vir a ser. / This study approaches the possibilities of becoming a subject in a foster institution, considering the possible implications for a child who has been separated from his or her family of origin. Thus, it is important to consider the different issues that may follow the child during his or her constitution, paying attention to the difficulties that mark this process, which often originate from flaws in their first relations. This study seeks, therefore, to understand how the subjective constitution happens in a shelter environment, and uses a methodology of evaluation, prevention, and promotion of mental health in early childhood, which was already used in other contexts. Hence, this study proposed, through the use of IRDIs (Clinical Risk Indicators for Early Childhood Development), a reading operation of the relation established between babies (up to 18 months of age) and their respective caretakers (educational agents), who are hosted in the residential shelters of Foundation of Special Protection of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In this context, Winnicott’s theoretical background was used to support this study, in ways that his contributions helped on reflecting about the possibilities that each baby finds when he or she is deprived of living with his or her mother/family. The research process comprised different moments: I. Awareness and training meeting for the educational agents; II. Visits to seven residence shelters (an average of four per house), where ten babies could be observed; III. Conversation rounds with the educational agents responsible for the care of the participant babies. Hence, the fundamental concepts of the winnicottian theory were used as a support to reflect about what was evidenced, in such a way that the concepts of environment and (dis)continuity of care served as foundation in the reading and building of meanings, which allowed the emergence of some points: Even emphasizing that all children have the right to continuity of care, the separation from the mother/family is not necessarily traumatic on its own. This led us to reflect about which place the shelter environment has for these children, considering that the fact that satisfactory results (some more than others) were found in the reading of babies with the IRDIs enables us to infer that, somehow, this context operates in a sufficient way in the subjectivation of babies. It is therefore understood that even if the babies hold a first mark (deprivation of their family of origin), there is a great possibility that they go through a full development, as long as there is the establishment of an encounter with someone/environment available to support him or her, to grant an experience of continuity, and to impede that his or her initial suffering curbs their process of becoming a subject.

O presente trabalho dedica-se a explorar o funcionamento da medida protetiva de acolhimento institucional para crianças e adolescentes, desvelando as forças presentes nesse campo de trabalho, bem como os efeitos nas vidas sobre as quais age. A partir da compreensão de que tais equipamentos integram a chamada rede de Proteção Social Especial de Alta Complexidade da política de Assistência Social brasileira e são ancorados no discurso de cuidado e proteção, bem como na lógica da garantia de direitos, busca-se afirmar as potências, os desafios e as contradições presentes nessas instituições. Tais equipamentos carregam traços de uma história em que o trato à criança e ao adolescente é marcado por uma engrenagem precarizada e produtora de vidas adoecidas - vidas permeadas por sofrimento e que, simultaneamente, geram práticas protetivas e de cuidado. As vidas das quais falamos são das crianças e dos adolescentes acolhidos, de seus familiares ou mesmo dos profissionais presentes nos equipamentos em tela. Objetiva-se compreender, a partir do funcionamento dos serviços e das políticas em voga, quais os modos de vida têm sido engendrados nesses equipamentos. A experiência em Serviços de Acolhimento para Crianças e Adolescentes (Saica) foi disparadora das questões presentes nesta dissertação e permitiu acessar formas de analisar as relações familiares, as práticas cotidianas, as relações institucionais e seus jogos de poder, bem como os elementos presentes no trabalho com família e nas práticas de adoção. Três histórias foram escolhidas para dar a ver essas diferentes questões e fazem parte de uma escrita-narrativa tecida com elementos dessas histórias, discussões teóricas, dados quantitativos e reflexões. Os movimentos e as inflexões nas vidas acolhidas institucionalmente carregam facetas do emaranhado que de fato é um Saica e permitem articular essas vidas às suas condições de existência ressaltando os esforços para que as práticas cotidianas gerem proteção e cuidado / The present work is dedicated to exploring how the protective institutional foster care for children and teenagers measure works, revealing the forces present in this scope of work, as well as the effects on the lives upon which it acts. Considering the premise that such equipment is part of the so-called Special Social Protection Network of High Complexity of the Brazilian Social Assistence policy and are anchored in the discourse of care and protection, as well as in the logic of guaranteeing rights, it is affirmed the powers, challenges and contradictions present in these institutions. These institutions bear traces of a history in which the treatment of the child and adolescent is marked by a precarious process of life-sickness lives permeated by suffering and which, simultaneously, result in protective and care practices. The lives of which we speak are lives of the children and adolescents, lives of their family or even the professional presents in the concerned institutions. The objective is to understand, from the functioning of the services and policies in vogue, which modes of life have been engendered. The experience in Serviço de Acolhimento para Crianças e Adolescentes (Saica) incited the issues presents in this dissertation and allowed access to ways of analyzing family relationships, daily practices, institutional relationships and their power relations, as well as the elements present in the work with family and adoption practices. Three stories were chosen to show these different questions and are part of a writing-narrative woven with elements of these stories, theoretical discussions, quantitative data and some reflections. Movements and inflections in institutionally fostered lives carry facets of the tangle that in fact is a Saica and allow them to articulate these lives to their conditions of existence by emphasizing the efforts that day-to-day practices generate protection and care

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / The main aim of this study was to explore lived experiences of unaccompanied foreign minors in South Africa from a social work perspective. An important goal was to also explore the lack of guidelines on how to assist these young people. This study was conducted in a Children's Shelter, which is situated in the North-Eastern outskirts of Polokwane, where a group of unaccompanied refugee children from Zimbabwe were living. This study was qualitative and explorative in nature. Non-probability sampling was used to select participants for the study. Ten children were selected, ranging from age 14 to 18 years. Semi-structured interviews with the children and a focus group discussion with five care workers were held. Thematic analysis was used. The findings of this study revealed that services by government social workers are limited compared to those from social workers employed with nongovernmental organisations. It is hoped that this study will assist government and other role players in planning, advocacy and policy development related to the issues affecting unaccompanied refugee children. / South Africa

In 2011 there were an estimated 3.9 million orphaned children in South Africa, many of them orphaned by HIV/AIDS. These children are at high risk for developing psychosocial and mental health problems. The National Strategy for the care of orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs) recognizes the importance of psychosocial support but there are few specific guidelines on best practice and little research on the effectiveness of psychosocial support programs. There is even less research capturing the perspectives of front-line staff and caregivers. This master’s thesis project conducted a case study of an NGO that provides foster care for OVCs in the Western Cape of South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 14 foster mothers, four social workers and one administrator of the HomeFromHome organization. Interviews explored the experiences, opinions and concerns of participants regarding psychosocial support and the respondents’ views on the (1) main challenges they face in providing psychosocial support (2) what they see as the most effective forms of support and (3) their recommendations for policy changes. Responses highlighted the psychosocial challenges faced by OVCs, those caring for children, and program staff. The research findings support the existing literature, which promotes psychosocial support as essential for orphaned, and vulnerable children. This case study found that HomeFromHome social workers, foster mothers and administration want increased levels of psychosocial support for both children and caregivers. Respondents identified foster mothers and a primary loving caregiver as the most significant form and source of psychosocial support for the children. An analysis of the participant responses identified several areas that warrant further investigation for future policy and program development. These include: the different forms of alternative childcare, the role of the community and the church, the gap between policy and implementation, gendered issues, the aging out process, and issues concerning biological families.

The educational outcomes of children in care, as they prepare for and eventually complete the transition out of care, have been the subject of a growing body of research. Despite the progress made, no unified theory of risk and protective factors associated with educational outcomes has yet arisen from the longitudinal, cohort, and cross-sectional studies conducted with youth in care. This dissertation presents three papers that examine the effects of risk and protective factors on a range of educational outcome variables. The studies follow the timeline of a young person preparing for transition, moving into supported transitional living, and then eventually exiting care altogether. Study 1 presents cross-sectional and longitudinal tests of the generalizability of many of the risk and protective factors identified by O’Higgins, Sebba, & Gardner (2014) in their systematic review of predictors of educational achievement among young people living in foster or kinship care. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 3,662 young people aged 12 to 17 years who were residing in out-of-home care in Ontario, Canada. An additional longitudinal sample was composed of a subsample of 962 young people from the cross-sectional sample who had also been assessed 36 months later with the AAR-C2-2010 during year 13 (2013-2014) of the OnLAC project. Supporting evidence for twelve of the twenty factors identified by O’Higgins et al. are revealed in the broad cross-sectional study and for the four factors that were found to predict change in academic success over a longitudinal timeframe suggest we are on the right track. Study 2 uses a lag-as-moderator approach to see if the time between assessments influences the predictive capacity of variables assessed when the young person was in care to predict educational variables evaluated when the youth had completed the transition to support independent living. Results from this thorough methodological study of gap length over six years of OnLAC data are encouraging: 87.5% of the predictors tested for statistical moderation effects by the length of time between assessments were shown to be stable predictors across all gaps (i.e., no moderation by gap length effect). Study 3 presents a pilot 12-month follow-up study conducted with young people at the point of a major transition within or from child welfare services, comparing their characteristics with those of samples from the general population. When assembled together, the three studies provide a foundation towards the formalizing of a list of risk and protective predictors of educational outcomes (namely, academic success, educational attainment, educational aspirations, and NEET status) originally selected from a systematic review that identified a range of factors to be associated with the educational outcomes of youth in care (O’Higgins, Sebba, and Gardner; 2014). Additionally, this dissertation presents a series of recommendations regarding the management and multiple imputation of missing data and the use of Lag as Moderator statistical methods in child welfare research.

Background: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate mental illness of young people placed in foster care inSweden, here defined as the occurrence of psychological and psychosomatic health problems. Method: The study utilizes data from Sweden using a self-assesment form filled out by 27.439 pupils in year 9of compulsory school, using data from the years 2008 – 2018. Applying various forms of regression models, thisstudy empirically evaluates the risk of psychosomatic and psychological health complaints among adolescentsplaced in foster care compared to adolescents from other family types. Results: The study found higher odds for young people in foster care compared to young people in nuclearfamilies to have five out of six psychosomatic disorders and five out of six psychological disorders. When compared to youth living with single parents the results showed higher odds for three out of six psychosomaticdisorders and two out of six psychological disorders. Conclusion: Youth in foster care is a population more vulnerable to mental illness than youth in other familytypes. Professionals working with and for adolescents living in foster care need to actively pay attention to boththe psychosomatic and psychological indicators of mental health issues.

abstract: Those who are in or have aged out of foster care, most of whom are queer, Black, brown, and low-income, are represented by social workers, educational advocates, behavioral health specialists, and the mainstream media as “at-risk” for criminal behavior, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and lower levels of educational attainment. Current and former residents of foster care and their experiences must be understood beyond these deficit models in order to restore humanity to and bring about positive change for this population. This project traced the strategies for survival of those in and aged out of foster care in Arizona through artmaking and critical qualitative methods. Using borderlands theory and medicinal histories, I demonstrated how system involved youth paint a picture of foster care as a dehumanizing borderland creating una cultura mestiza – a hybrid culture that youth learned to navigate as both healers and healing. Additionally, I argued the foster care system is inherently disabling by way of the processual (re)narrativization the system dictates in order to make those in the system legible to the State through the labeling of mental and physical disabilities. Lastly, I explored insights garnered about foster care through ensemble-based devised theatre. I found it is important to have systemic representations of foster care in tandem with embodied experiences of said system. Collage-making served as an accessible mechanism for relationship building, material generation, and material knowledge. I discovered meaningful ways of representing absent presences of system involved people through feeding forward their artistic creations into the devising process. Taken together, I found foster care system involved people survive through art and creativity, connection to people and places, and keen resourcefulness cultivated in the system. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Women and Gender Studies 2020

(in English): The aim of the thesis is to compare children's ideas about their future after leaving institutional facilities with the view of caregivers. The diploma thesis deals with forms of substitute care, specifics of children in institutional care including emotional deprivation, preparation and leaving the children's home. It analyses children's ideas about education, employment, finances, housing, relationships with the original family, partnership, parenting, and rescue network after leaving the children's home. The thesis combines interviews with children focused on their life ideas and questionnaires that were presented to their caregivers to assess the reality and the possibility of their fulfilment.

1 ABSTRACT The diploma thesis is focused on experience with self-reflection of social workers who supporting foster families. It is divided into two parts - theoretical and empiric. Aim of the thesis was to find out what kind of experience with self-reflection has social workers of organizations supporting foster families. The theoretical part has five chapters. The first chapter shows to readers what profession of a social worker is about - at first it looks at social work in context of helping professions, then it defines expert studies, abilities, and personality of social worker, and it also mentions possible motivation for working in this field. The second chapter brings topic of foster care and a definition of supporting; it describes supporting organizations for foster families and role of social worker in it. In the third chapter there can be found definition of self-reflection (in narrow meaning it brings nearer parts of self-reflection such as self-approach, self-knowledge, or self-regulation); further there can be found consideration of what importance self-reflection has for social workers and which tools to reach it they can use. The fourth chapter is aimed at view of influence which can affect self-reflection, such as emotion of worker, projection, topic of power and powerlessness, work with...

in English language This thesis focuses on foster care for a transitional period. The aim of the thesis is to describe the role of foster carers for a transitional period, OSPOD workers and foster family guides in period between the process of taking a foster child for a transitional period and re-transferring to a biological family or one of the long-term types of foster care. The thesis describes foster care for a transitional period and individual roles according to available literature, legislation, methodology and interviews with actors themselves. The partial goal is to find out how participants perceive each other, what they expect, what competencies they should have. Another partial aim of this work is methodological recommendation.