My thesis, "The Transformation of the Media-Image for Children's Systems of Care" analyzes the system of care for vulnerable children in the Czech Republic, specifically how Act. No 359/1999 Coll. transforms the the socio-legal protection of children. The amendment aims to reform services inthe area of preventive action: the legislation prioritizes the family as the best environment for the child. Under this amendment, a child is placed in institutional care only as a last resort. Additionally, the amendment also professionalizes and standardizes the social-legal protection of children. Transforming a bureaucratic system is always a political process in which different actors are involved, who aim to implement new policies promoting their best interests. The aim of this paper is to describe the image of Czech households in the media depicted by policy actors, and how these images consequently transformed the system of care for vulnerable children. For this purpose, content analysis of media communication, ranging from print media, television networks, radio stations, and websites, and the other complementary methods were applied. The theoretical anchors are grounded in foundational concepts of public policy (public policy network theory) and media sciences (agenda setting theory of media...

Virtually nothing is known about the characteristics used to select foster families. This study examined if and how psychosocial problems, income, education, race and the supply of and demand for foster families are related to the approval of families to foster and the placement of children. Families who were approved and who had a child placed had fewer problems and higher incomes than families who were not approved and who did not have a child placed. Income moderated the effect of problems on placement. Race, education, and supply/demand were not related to approval or placement. In many respects results support the efficacy of the selection process.

Providing effective foster care is a major undertaking that continues to plague this country. The ultimate goal of substitute care is to provide child victims of maltreatment with a safe and nurturing home environment. The goal of this theory driven research project was to identify ecological factors correlated with effective non-kin family foster care. Various levels of analysis were considered including individual, family and community. The findings of this study identified three factors as significant predictors of effective foster care. Included are implications for social work in the areas of practice, policy, and research.

Familjehemsvård är den vanligaste placeringsformen i Sverige för barn som inte kan bo med sin familj. När sammanbrott sker berörs de närmast involverade. Syftet var att genom en allmän litteraturöversikt undersöka familjehemsföräldrars perspektiv på sammanbrott i familjehemsvård. 10 vetenskapliga artiklar låg till grund för resultatet som analyserades med hjälp av sorg- och kristeori samt salutogenetiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att sammanbrott väcker olika känslor som sorg, förlust, lättnad och ångest. Familjehemsföräldrar kände sig misslyckade och upplevde sig ha svikit barnet. Dessa känslor kunde även leda till en identitetskris hos familjehemsföräldrarna. Vidare uppmärksammades att relationen till, och kommunikationen med, socialtjänsten påverkade upplevelsen av sammanbrott. Brister i samverkan med socialtjänsten kunde negativt påverka stödet till familjehemsföräldrarna. / In Sweden, family foster care is the most common form of placement for children who cannot live with their families. Disruptions in placements can occur and affect those most immediately involved. The purpose of this literature review was to explore foster parents’ perspectives on placement breakdown. The result was based on 10 scientific articles that were analyzed through bereavement theory and salutogenic perspective. Results show that placement disruption awakens emotions such as sorrow, loss, relief and anxiety. Foster parents’ experienced failure and felt that they had betrayed the child. These feelings could also lead to an identity crisis for the foster parents. Further observations indicated that the relationship to, and communication with, social services affected foster parents’ perceptions of disruption. The shortcomings in collaboration with social services could influence the support offered to foster parents in a negative way.

This thesis is concerned by the problems of foster care from the view of Christian ethics. It presents interpretation of marriage and family in the Bible, in Christian tradition and at present. It deals with the conception of foster care from history to contemporary form and its valid laws of the Czech Republic. It touches on ethical issues related to foster care. It shows the basic Christian principles, which justify the foster care, however the discussion about its specific shape and form is possible.

This Diploma Thesis deals with the description of the ethical dilemmas faced by personnel attached to the foster family. The first part is devoted to the family, because that is the target group with which the attached person supervising the worker works. The second part deals with foster care, in particular, its legislative definition. This definition determines the boundaries within which the worker moves. Next, I explain, what is the legislation of our country, related to foster care, based on. The third chapter describes what should the attached personnel be like and what is included in their work performance. The next chapter presents dilemmas for workers, which I found, on the basis of qualitative research using interviews with staff. The final, fifth chapter is devoted to the analysis of selected ethical dilemma from the perspective of ethics I. Kant and utilitarianism.

The subject of the presented thesis focuses on foster care exercised by children´s relatives. The target is to ascertain possible different roles in kinship foster care and different attitudes to the aforementioned, record the experience of kinship care givers, their viewing and experiencing of childcare. I wanted to know if fostering had brought any positives into their lives and on the other hand if there are any negatives related to such care. The theoretic part of my thesis describes the history of foster care in different periods, explains the terms like family, social role and attachment. Furthermore, particular forms of foster care are explained and foster care exercised by children´s relatives is described in more details. Attention is also paid to the relationship and contact between a child and his/her parents. The Authority for social and legal protection of children (OSPOD in Czech) has an essential role in foster care together with assisting organizations, which are described in the last chapter of the theoretic part. I used qualitative methodology for research purposes and semi-structured interviews for collection of data. The research file contained eight respondents which were selected based on simple purpuseful sampling. The research file consisted of foster parents caring for children of their relatives. I determined reasons why the children had been placed into foster care, how the foster parents experience such care and how they view it themselves. The results of the interview analysis helped me to uncover and understand the basis of kinship foster care. According to similar signs, they were divided into several areas. The first area focused on the reasons why the child had been placed into kinship foster care. The main reasons included various types of addictions, child neglect, failure to provide suitable housing or lack of interest in the child. The second area related to the feelings of foster mothers when accepting the child. Their decision-making process is described here, including their motivation and fears related to fostering. In most cases, foster mothers had enough time for making their decisions on fostering. Half of the foster mothers found it natural; the other half had ambivalent feelings for it. The third area is dedicated to changes in wider personal relationships and relationships in the family, in particular, to the impact of foster care on relations between partners and the potential influence on the relationship of foster parents with their own children. Relations with biologic children of the foster parents had an important role as well. The fourth area includes basic characteristics of childcare. Most foster mothers noticed significant changes in their lives. Foster care had a negative impact on the quality of their lives but it principally became a source of vitality and optimism for them. Foster mothers faced problem situations related to intergenerational differences, behaviour of children and problems at school. They also worried often about the future of their foster children. Some foster mothers accepted the role of a mother that predominated over their other life roles. Others had no problems in separating their roles and shifting from one role to another. Most conflicts in the role appeared when the child was fostered by his/her grandmother. The last area contains conditions that have helped foster mothers to reduce the burden of foster care. Foster mothers appreciated help of their families, which they preferred, and sufficient financial security. They gladly accepted the help of assisting organizations and the services offered by them. Mandatory education and the possibility to share their experience with other foster parents were of great importance too.

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...

(in English) Thesis deals with biological children of parents, who have other kids in foster care. These kids are often neglected. In the theoretical part are described and defined terms such as a substitute foster family and its forms, family, siblings. It focuses also on selected foreing researches and contemporary Czech works on this topic. Practical part contains analyzes of interviews with respondents. The main aim was to find out what biological children of their parents in general think of foster care. How they perceive the situation in their own family and how it affects them.

The diploma thesis focuses on the topic of leaving alternative care and it is divided into two parts. In the first theoretical part I describe the system of alternative care in the Czech Republic, its division and definition. I also deal with the termination of care, preparation for independence and the last are forms of assistance and aftercare services. In the practical part, the subject of my interest will be the readiness of young people after the end of alternative care. Through a semi-structured interview, I will find out how they are doing in various areas that are important for independence. In the final part, I summarize the results of the research, which will be provided with commentary. Keywords Substitute care, family, foster care, institutional education, preparation for independent living, after-care services