The aim of the thesis Volunteer programs that support child in adoption or foster care is to monitor the offer of volunteer programs for children in adoption foster care in the Czech Republic and to show possibilities of support which volunteer program could bring to children, including demonstrations of experience from similar programs abroad. The theoretical part of thesis describes the foster care system with respect to the child's needs and ways of support that are available to them in both professional and volunteer sphere. Emphasis is placed on the role of people who accompany a child on his way from the biological family to foster families, including important relationships and ties, which child lose during his way. It will also explain the idea and values of volunteering as unpaid voluntary work, including the typology of programs focusing on children and the ways volunteers can help to improve their situation. Practically oriented empirical part shows the concrete experiences of the actors from the volunteer program supporting children in foster care by the interviews. This program is organized by the volunteer center and respondents are volunteers, parents and children involved in this program, including the head of the program, through which the program was created. At the end of this...

Demographic and epidemiological change has resulted globally in changes in population and individual health, which, in turn, have resulted in changing care needs. Demographic change in South Africa, mainly through a confluence of declining fertility rates and pre-AIDS increases in life expectancy, has produced an ageing population that is expected to continue ageing for at least the next 10 to 15 years. Currently, South Africa’s older population (60 years+) has a much higher annual average percent growth rate than the total population. Having more older persons than ever before implies increased prevalence of frailty, chronic disease and disability through a tendency of declining physical, mental and cognitive functional capacities—hence meaning a larger demand for care. The changing age structure of a population is commonly associated with changes in health, disease and cause of death patterns. Recent research indicates an intensive, quadruple burden of disease, with the major addition of HIV/AIDS to persistent pre-transitional conditions, non-communicable conditions, and high rates of injuries—implying an extensive and diverse need for care. While demographic and epidemiological change have led to an increased demand for care, health system change, shortages in formal public health care delivery, and the spiralling costs of private care have led to decreased availability of formal care. Care-requiring persons therefore may need to rely increasingly on ‘informal care’, defined here as ‘care provided at home to another person who, because of frailty disability or ill-health, cannot manage on his/her own’. Research on informal care in developed nations is well-established and extensive, but has received very little attention in South Africa where it is not clear how many and who it is that are informal carers. The thesis study has hence been conducted to contribute to the limited research in the field of informal care, aiming to establish the national extent of informal care, and to present a demographic and socio-economic profile of informal carers. A multi-stage stratified area cluster probability sample of 2704 persons was drawn from free-living adults in a nationally-representative household survey in 2000. Field data were collected during 2611 individual face-to-face interviews. Basic univariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Of the adult population, 27% were found to be informal carers. Significant prevalence differences were found regarding sex, population group, geographic residence, education, employment status, and income. Adjusting for selected demographic characteristics, the significance status and levels of some relationships changed. It is concluded that informal caregiving is widespread in South Africa. While demographic and epidemiological evidence suggest that the reliance on informal carers is expected to increase, many informal carers are struggling to shoulder the physical, mental and financial burden. A national strategy to focus on informal carers is recommended, to raise awareness about their essential role and value in the health care system; to recognize their contributions to population and individual health; to comprehensively support them; and to assess their needs and concerns through ongoing research. / Dissertation (MA (Demography))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Sociology / unrestricted

The purpose of this study is to examine how supervisors within individual and family care handle the area for burnout among social workers. The study also examined supervisors view on the psychosocial environment and its significance for burn-out. In this qualitative study, interviews were conducted with 7 professionals supervisor. The result show that supervisors within individual and family care have experience of burn-out among social workers. All informants point out that the occurrence of burn-out looks different for different individuals who are affected. The result also show, based on the informant’s responses, that the psychosocial work environment in the workplace has a connection with the mental illness of the employee and that in combination with each other, affect the individual's well-being. The majority of informants illustrate various challenges regarding these areas, including privacy life versus professional life in the occurrence of burn-out. The result of the study show that there is a need for more research on the subject. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur chefer inom individ- och familjeomsorg hanterar området för utmattningssyndrom bland socialsekreterare. Studien undersökte även chefers syn på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön och dess betydelse för utmattningssyndrom på arbetsplatsen. Till studien valdes en kvalitativ ansats där sju stycken yrkesverksamma chefer intervjuades. Resultatet visar att chefer inom individ-och familjeomsorg har erfarenheter av utmattningssyndrom bland socialsekreterare. Samtliga informanter pekar på att uppkomsten av utmattningssyndrom ser olika ut för olika individer som drabbas. Resultatet visar också, utifrån informanternas upplevelser, att den psykosociala arbetsmiljön på arbetsplatsen har ett samband med psykisk ohälsa hos medarbetaren och att dessa i kombination med varandra påverkar individens mående. Majoriteten av informanterna belyser olika utmaningar gällande dessa områden, däribland privatliv kontra yrkesliv i uppkomsten av utmattningssyndrom. Resultatet av studien visar att det finns ett behov av mer forskning kring ämnet.

For most people, family represents a place where they feel safe and loved. But not everyone is lucky enough to have a place like this, to have a functional family. If the biological family does not work as it should and a baby is threatened in some way, the state has several options to help the child. If there are solvable problems in the family, the state can try to help it by various interventions to improve the situation. But if these actions do not help and the child is forced to leave this family, it is necessary to ensure alternative environment for baby. The child can either be placed in institutional care, or to substitutional family care. Considering the shortcomings of institutional care, various forms of substitutional care are mainly supported. Probably the best known form of substitutional care is adoption. In the case of adoption, baby becomes the member of new family and relationships between child and his biological family vanishes. This form is only possible for a small percentage of abandoned children, because most of them still has some kind of relationship with biological family. For these children, there is an alternative, namely foster care. In the case of foster care, child grows up in a foster family, foster parents care for him every day, but the child still has a...

Substitute family care is a frequently mentioned topic in the Czech Republic, especially in connection with the high number of children placed in institutional facilities. Foster care, as a one of the forms of substitute family care, was registered within the amendment to the Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children No. 359/1999 Coll. It was in January 2013 and a new concept of support and definition of foster parents' rights and obligations was defined. One of these obligations is to conclude a foster care agreement either with the municipal authority of the municipality with extended powers or with a non-governmental non-profit organization which is entrusted with the exercise of social and legal protection of children and with foster care agreements. This diploma thesis focuses on the personnel activities of non-governmental non-profit organizations that accompany foster families and on the key accompanying workers themselves as well. The theoretical part defines an area of social and legal protection of children, the system of substitute family care, the activities of non-governmental non-profit organizations and personnel processes in the organization. In the qualitative research, I map out an area of human resources management in the accompanying organizations in the form of...

The legal status of a child and a registered partnership Abstract The topic of this master thesis is the legal status of a child and a registered partnership. The aim is to outline the current concept and status of family and parenthood, but also to list differences between registered partnership and marriage. The work is focused on how the Registered Partnership Act met the needs of homosexual couples, and whether registered partners have limited rights in comparison with spouses. The master thesis examines the registered partners' legal options to have or take care of a child. The thesis also deals with adoption and alternative care, and states legal duties and rights between parents and children. In conclusion, it describes foreign homosexual partnerships regulation on the selected examples of Slovakia and France. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter on family and parenting focuses on the role of the family in contemporary society and its recent development. It also briefly mentions parenting, assisted reproduction, and surrogate motherhood. The last part is focused on homosexual couples and their options while starting a family. The second part deals with registered partnership in relation to marriage. It contains individual provisions of the Registered Partnership Act which are...

Foster care is currently a topic that arouses certain controversy in society, which often stems from ignorance of this type of alternative family care. In the diploma thesis, with the help of the analysis, the domestic system of substitute family care was comprehensively described with a focus on foster care. This system was subsequently compared with foreign systems. The work also deals with the identification of the main motivational factors that are essential for the performance of foster care. To find out important information about the motivational factors of foster care, the method of a questionnaire survey was used, which was conducted with foster parents and also with persons without experience with foster care. The questionnaire survey with foster parents showed that the main motivating factor for foster parents is selfless help for children in institutional care. The questionnaire survey with people without experience with foster care showed that their motivation for foster care would be stimulated by helping children in institutional care and efforts to provide family facilities for such children. Several responses from the questionnaire surveys were also compared. From this comparison came significant differences in motivational factors between foster parents and people without...

Children, who grow up in families, where their parents have decided to take care of a foster child on a commission of the social welfare services, are not often given the possibility to tell about their experience of having foster siblings, in research and other studies. The aim of this study was to give biological children, in these families, a chance to tell their narratives of growing up with foster siblings, creating opportunities for families, who might have plans to take care of foster children in the future. They can get a picture of how it could be for the family´s own children. The biological children got the opportunity to tell their narrative stories including the relationships in their families and how they were looking forward into their own future and family life. The used theory takes part in systemic thinking, looking at the family as an organization and how identities are created in relationships and in communication. The method was interviews with six “children” and analyze of the text material. The result is presented in short summaries and quotation. The result shows that the children have been influenced in different ways by living with foster siblings and they have a large empathize for their parents and the situation. It also shows that the relations between the biological children and the foster children can be lasting for their future and the biological children can see the foster child as a “real” sibling. Communication and the feeling of participation were important for the children. All stories are individual but some conclusions appear. One is that the children is involved in everything that happens around them and they have own strategies to handle it.

The present thesis deals with the media image of women's everyday life in the socialist era. It focuses on the period of time between 1970 and 1975, i.e. on the so called early normalization. The aim of the study is to find out in what way the everyday life of the given period is interpreted by the magazine Vlasta. The main value of the analysis is that it reveals the idealistic presentation of the socialist women's way of life, and their common problems and worries. The analysis of the articles we perform is focused on family and home care, child upbringing both at home and in institutions, man's role in the family, physical and mental health, cosmetics, fashion, etc., i.e. all the aspects belonging to and forming everyday life. Through these topics, which are popular among women, the magazine discreetly created the ideal of the socialist woman. In the messages concerned with everyday life it was passing on the values, stereotypes and even ideological principles of the socialist society of that time. The main aim of the analysis is to create a complex picture of this everyday practice in Vlasta magazine. Key words Everyday life, woman, socialisms, normalization, Vlasta magazine, family care, home care, child care

This MA thesis encompasses the motivation of the applicant to apply for a long-term stay at a retirement home. The theoretical part analyses the needs that seniors have, describes the system of care of the elderly and its problems, as well as the limits, motivation and psychosocial aspects of family care of the elderly, and the effect of a retirement home residence on the personality and quality of life of the elderly. The empirical part is formed as a quantitative research with the use of questionnaires. Respondents were selected out of the applicants for a long-term stay at a retirement home. The aim of the empirical part of the MA thesis is to answer the key question of the entire research: what life situation is responsible for the applicant's motivation for applying for a long-term stay at a retirement home. The empirical part describes the research objectives, research methods and research groups and poses the research questions. The received data are than analyzed, and the results are subjected to a critical scrutiny in a discussion. The results of this thesis serve as a basis for creating new projects to encourage seniors to remain at their home environment, and aimed at preventing the placement of the elderly in institutional facilities