Short-term foster care is a fairly new form of substitute family care. Despite it having been incorporated in law since 2006, short-term foster care have only begun being employed seven years later. Only then the details of its administration were laid out in legislation. Purpose of this form of substitute family care is to prevent a placement of children into institutional care. It's possible to look at the professional foster care from different angles and thus assess it differently. Certainly, it has its positive and negative aspects as well as possible problems. It's undeniable that a well-functioning family is the best environment for raising and caring for a child. Forming an emotional bond is one of the most discussed factors contributing to the proper development of children placed in short-term foster care. Experts as well as the general public are looking for answers to the questions whether or not it's in the interest of the child to form an attachment to someone who's with them only for a short period of time, which children is professional foster care best suited for, whether children living in short-term foster care placements are less prone to suffer from emotional deprivation than children placed in institutional care or whether the duration of this form of foster care is sufficient. More questions arise over the degree of health care provided to infants placed with a professional forster family as well as over the level of risk of these children suffering traumas and stigmatizing experience compared to children living in institutional care. The objective of this thesis is to survey and assess the experience gained so far from implementing short-term foster care and to try and describe based on (previously) established facts how the children benefit from this form of substitute family care. In order to meet the set objective I chose a qualitative research strategy, the interview as a method, a semi-structured interview and a secondary analysis strategies. The results show that the most common reason for placing a child in this form of foster care is the impending adoption, i. e. it's mainly being used for infants whilst adoption placements are sorted out for them. To a lesser extent there are other reasons, respectively a minimum of older children are placed with professional foster families. Given these facts, it appears necessary to regard the short-term foster care differently depending on the age group of children placed in it. Undeniable merits of all cases of short-term foster care are an individual approach to each child that minimizes emotional deprivation and development of trauma, the development of the attachment behaviour and enough stimuli to influence a child's development. In the case of older children these are an experience of living in a well-functioning family and a positive educational impact. Developing an attachment between the child and the foster parent and then losing it because of the child's departure from a family is more risky for older children than newborns and toddlers. Claim that no attachment is to be formed between the child and the foster parent proved entirely unrealistic. The lack of permanent medical supervision can be seen as a disadvantage of professional foster care especially from the perspective of child welfare workers. Children placed for adoption often come from not monitored pregnancies or parents at-risk, i.e. these are children with unknown history whose development can therefore be risky, so they require a professional medical care in the first weeks of their lives. Research results have also indicated foster parents' positive motivation to professional fostering, an undisputed enrichment that this occupation brings their entire families and a satisfaction resulting from the meaningfulness of their work. The author believes that the institute of short-term foster care is undoubtedly very beneficial for a certain category of
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:188708 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | SEDLÁČKOVÁ VINKLEROVÁ, Blanka |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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