Stroke recovery is complex and poorly understood. As a legacy of pervasive pessimism in the face of limited treatment, it is conceptualised and researched from biomedical and psychosocial perspectives that address impairment, problems of performance, quality of life, burden and disruption. Little stroke research is conducted once professional input has ceased, and yet considerable change occurs after this period with evidence that post-stroke wellbeing is independent of impairment and function -- many people do well in the face of poor prognoses, while others remain miserable despite 'good recovery'. Current advances in acute stroke management are generating increasing optimism, but lack of understanding about individuals' post-stroke experiences and long-term outcomes continues. While it is recognised that the impact of stroke on the lives of survivors and families is profound, rehabilitation focuses on recovery as task achievement and measured functional outcomes. For many survivors and their families 'recovery' is contested, ambiguous and extended. For some, it becomes a lifetime marathon because stroke represents an assault, not only to the body, but to the self and the lifeworld -- it is a 'life' event. This narrative inquiry into life after stroke explores recovery as a process taking place over time and conceptualised as a life transition. The work is grounded in narrative theory with the concept of transition providing the lens and focus for the research, its processes and analyses. Individuals' stories remain intact enabling evocation of diverse stroke meanings and the mapping of individual experience. Bringing these whole stories into conversation with each other elucidates post-stroke transition which is interpreted in light of theories of response to traumatic loss and informed by narrative theory. The thesis presents stories of trauma, loss and grief, situated in past lives and selves where assumptions about selves and future lives are shattered. The future makes no sense in terms of participants' past and present lives; life plots are lost and stroke therefore represents 'lost futures'. Stories of moving on to new lives are focused on being and doing in the present and have an expectant view of life. Although mindful of past lives and enduring losses, survivors actively engage in processes to reconfigure their lives with hope for a meaningful future. Transition is interpreted as 'reconfiguring the future'. The life tasks of reconfiguration are embedded in dynamic models of traumatic loss where grief is conceptualised as recursive movement between loss and meaning reconstruction evident in narratives that slowly move towards wellbeing. Despite broad recognition that loss and grief are part of the stroke experience, they are rarely addressed; where attention is paid it is likely embedded in explanatory models of staged response that oversimplify human experience. This thesis offers a new framework. It represents a fresh interpretation that highlights the ongoing traumatic impact of stroke. The post-stroke journeys of survivors and families are affected by individual circumstances and meanings. Although their stories are permeated with loss, many people move forward towards lives worth living. This interpretation suggests ways of reconfiguring lives in the face of devastation and ongoing traumatic loss. The work identifies a complex interaction of individual, emotional and social factors contributing to transitions to wellbeing following stroke and thus adds to a prospective vision of post-stroke life that can inform rehabilitation, discharge and stroke support strategies. Post-stroke transition will be enhanced when we use narrative framing and understanding to guide rehabilitative practice that uses meaning-centred models to prepare survivors and their families for a return to the lifeworld. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2009

Stroke recovery is complex and poorly understood. As a legacy of pervasive pessimism in the face of limited treatment, it is conceptualised and researched from biomedical and psychosocial perspectives that address impairment, problems of performance, quality of life, burden and disruption. Little stroke research is conducted once professional input has ceased, and yet considerable change occurs after this period with evidence that post-stroke wellbeing is independent of impairment and function -- many people do well in the face of poor prognoses, while others remain miserable despite 'good recovery'. Current advances in acute stroke management are generating increasing optimism, but lack of understanding about individuals' post-stroke experiences and long-term outcomes continues. While it is recognised that the impact of stroke on the lives of survivors and families is profound, rehabilitation focuses on recovery as task achievement and measured functional outcomes. For many survivors and their families 'recovery' is contested, ambiguous and extended. For some, it becomes a lifetime marathon because stroke represents an assault, not only to the body, but to the self and the lifeworld -- it is a 'life' event. This narrative inquiry into life after stroke explores recovery as a process taking place over time and conceptualised as a life transition. The work is grounded in narrative theory with the concept of transition providing the lens and focus for the research, its processes and analyses. Individuals' stories remain intact enabling evocation of diverse stroke meanings and the mapping of individual experience. Bringing these whole stories into conversation with each other elucidates post-stroke transition which is interpreted in light of theories of response to traumatic loss and informed by narrative theory. The thesis presents stories of trauma, loss and grief, situated in past lives and selves where assumptions about selves and future lives are shattered. The future makes no sense in terms of participants' past and present lives; life plots are lost and stroke therefore represents 'lost futures'. Stories of moving on to new lives are focused on being and doing in the present and have an expectant view of life. Although mindful of past lives and enduring losses, survivors actively engage in processes to reconfigure their lives with hope for a meaningful future. Transition is interpreted as 'reconfiguring the future'. The life tasks of reconfiguration are embedded in dynamic models of traumatic loss where grief is conceptualised as recursive movement between loss and meaning reconstruction evident in narratives that slowly move towards wellbeing. Despite broad recognition that loss and grief are part of the stroke experience, they are rarely addressed; where attention is paid it is likely embedded in explanatory models of staged response that oversimplify human experience. This thesis offers a new framework. It represents a fresh interpretation that highlights the ongoing traumatic impact of stroke. The post-stroke journeys of survivors and families are affected by individual circumstances and meanings. Although their stories are permeated with loss, many people move forward towards lives worth living. This interpretation suggests ways of reconfiguring lives in the face of devastation and ongoing traumatic loss. The work identifies a complex interaction of individual, emotional and social factors contributing to transitions to wellbeing following stroke and thus adds to a prospective vision of post-stroke life that can inform rehabilitation, discharge and stroke support strategies. Post-stroke transition will be enhanced when we use narrative framing and understanding to guide rehabilitative practice that uses meaning-centred models to prepare survivors and their families for a return to the lifeworld. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2009

The best interests of the child are paramount in every matter concerning the child. This applies in the case of adoption of a child as well. When an adoption is intercultural, culture is an issue to be taken into account. This study is undertaken to consider the role that culture should play in a decision whether an adoption is in the best interests of the child. In order to determine whether intercultural adoption is a viable option that serves the best interests of the child, interracial adoption also needs to be focused on, as intercultural adoption is often also interracial. The research for this thesis is done from a South African legal perspective, although some interdisciplinary and international research is necessary as well. A brief historical overview of adoption in South Africa is undertaken, as it is important to have some background knowledge about adoption in South Africa in order to understand why race and culture are relevant in the South African adoptive system. The role of the family in the life of the child is investigated. The difference between family care, parental care and alternative care is researched. Thereafter the role of emotional bonding for a child, also known as attachment, is focused on. An important question is whether race and culture is the same thing. This is researched, whereafter the role of race and culture in the adoption process is investigated. The relevant provisions of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983,which regulates adoption in South Africa, are compared to the relevant provisions of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, which will regulate adoption in South Africa soon. Finally, some conclusions are drawn, shortcomings are highlighted and possible solutions are suggested. The outcome of this thesis should provide some guidance to those involved in the adoption process with regard to the factors that are important in determining the best interests of the child in an intercultural adoption. / Law / LL.D.

This paper deals with the impact of prematurely canceled foster care on a deve-lopment of a child. It gives an overview of the system of care of endangered children in the Czech Republic. It also presents the current legislation which is the basis of the surrogate family care in the Czech Republic. In 2013, an amendment of the Social and Legal Protection of Children law came into force, which the legislators built up on the experi-ence with professional foster care in Slovakia. Its goal is to reduce the number of chil-dren in children's institutions. The paper further includes a thorough analysis of develo-pmental needs of a child. Foster parents have to accept the fact, that they decided to take in a child with an unfulfilled attachment bond. Premature cancellation of foster care can bear witness to the fact that a foster family cannot create an attachment bond to the child and does not provide a sufficient amount of support for its development. The pa-per takes into consideration the dangers the juveniles are challenged with as a result of an unsuccessful foster care. Based on the interviews with many directors of children's homes in the South Bohemian region, negative impact of the canceled foster care on children has been noted. New questions suitable for further research in this region have emerged out of the interviews. Host care is one of the possibilities to provide children with a family educational model in children's home. The directors agree that it is the first-rate personality of a foster parent that is crucial for a first-rate foster care, i.e. a foster parent who can open her- or himself to the child and grant him or her his or her own family affectionate environment. The problem of unsuccessful foster care can be minimized only by genuine acceptance of a child and unconditional love for him or her.

My work analyses the legislation changes in the area of social and legal protection of children in the Czech Republic that have been introduced over the last two years. This work focuses on impacts of these changes in the practice of transferring children to substitute care as well as ethical aspects directly connected with this process. Laws impacting the social and legal protection of children are being compared in order to understand the legal rights of children. The consequences of the legislative changes have a direct effect on the processes of handing children to substitute care. The work is not only concerned with the practical impacts, but also with the ethical side of the problem which was identified as the most important in my thesis. Case reports from my own practice provide a complementary evidence to the reader to better understand the process of placement of children into substitute care both at professional and ethical levels.

In my diploma work I concentrated on various forms of work with foster-families focused on prevention, consultancy and special help. Regional authorities are obliged to arrange them as a part of so-called consultations on foster care practice according to para. 4 of section 11 of Act No.359/1999 Coll. on Social and Legal protection of children. I tried to map the way the particular regional authorities fill this paragraph. In more detail I attended to activity of south-bohemian regional authority in this field. In terms of the research I found that the importance of foster-families meetings consists in experience exchange, feeling of sharing and gaining new information. From that point of view more days meetings are the most popular with both fosterers and social workers when there is more time for it.

The thesis is a probe into the picture of alternative family care in the Czech Republic, oriented to the foster care. In the theoretical part a description of alternatice foster care for children removed from their biological family is given. It is concerned with vital needs of such children and their psychical deprivation. It tries to show why mothers waive their child and shows some aspects of social work in this field. The practical part of the thesis is concerned with the qualitative research that compares fostering in classical Czech foster families with fostering in special institutions {--} so called Big Foster Families. Research investigations are taken from the point of view of teenaged children being in foster care, and research is based on principles of modern (professional) fostering. The research investigations contain six interviews with children from classical families and four with children from special instituions for foster care. (The research is not concerned with SOS villages) Good quality of the foster care does not depend too much on the fact whether it is provided with a classical foster family or with a fostering institutions. It depends, first and foremost, on the character foster parent, i.e. if he/she is able to create positive relationships with the child and if he/she is able to adopt and accept the child unconditionally.

The diploma thesis "A journey of a child from own family to a foster family - Substitute family care in the Czech republic" deals with the problematics of substitute family care focusing on foster family care. Institutional education is being taken into account as well, since it represents one of the possibilities of a child's placement out of own family. Because it is a priority and for the good of a child to grow up in a family environment, institutional education should be used only as the last possible solution. The Czech republic has been often criticised for having too high amount of children growing up in institutions and for infringing the rights arising from the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this context foster family care and possible establishment of professional foster family care has currently been discussed in the Czech republic. Even the nowaday's system of foster family care is not spared from criticism. The solution for this system of care for children without family background inheres in establishment of professional foster family care which allows children, who cannot grow up in their bilogical families and who are not (for legal or actual reasons) suitable for adoption, to grow up in family environment. Attention is payed to experiences from foreign countries with a special...

The Diploma thesis a case study monitors the process of implementing supervision in a specific medical institution that cares for vulnerable children up to three years of age. The aim of the change is to create a space for self-reflection for the employees of the organization, to support the learning process and the change. In the context of the transformation of foster care, the aim of this thesis is to support resilience when coping with change and to facilitate an open dialogue between the management and employees. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on the definition and explanation of the related terms. I present the ethical aspects of the case study and the methodology in the empirical part of the thesis. It is followed by data analysis, a description of the change process, an assessment of the organization's input status prior to the implementation of the change, and an evaluation of the organization's statut nine months after the change was introduced.

DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Pěstounská péče na přechodnou dobu Foster care for temporary period Pavla Blatná Abstract This master's thesis focuses on the topic of foster care for temporary period in the context of deinstitutionalization of facilities for children who cannot be part of their biological family. The aim of this work was to map out and describe the system of this form of foster care and to monitor whether there are children in Czech Republic placed into large care facilities who would benefit from another form of foster family care. The introductory part describes the development of paradigms and legislation related to foster care in the Czech Republic. The research part focuses on three areas of questions related to foster care for temporary period. They are questions of practical implications of deinstitutionalization, financial issues related to deinstitutionalization and finally deinstitutionalization as viewed from ethics and democracy perspectives, all related to the context of foster care for temporary period. Each topic is further elaborated with data from research interviews with four professionals of the foster care field.