scholarly journals How Do People Become Foster Carers in Portugal? The Process of Building the Motivation

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Elisete Diogo ◽  
Francisco Branco
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Family Context ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Foster Family ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Out Of Home Care

Act no. 142/2015 highlights the importance of children out-of-home being placed in a family context. However, foster care continues to be an almost absent component in the Portuguese childcare system. In 2017, it corresponded to just 3% of out-of-home care. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the reasons for becoming a foster family. It adopted a qualitative approach, using carers’ narrative interviews and practitioners semi-structured interviews, inspired by grounded theory. Foster family motivation is rooted in altruism, affection for children and sensitivity to maltreatment. These factors, as well as personal life course and contact with out-of-home care, induce a predisposition to become a foster family. The quality of the support services and the care professionals’ performance also reveal key elements.

scholarly journals Mind-mindedness in out-of-home Care for Children: Implications for caregivers and child

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Colonnesi ◽  
Carolien Konijn ◽  
Leoniek Kroneman ◽  
Ramón J. L. Lindauer ◽  
Geert Jan J. M. Stams
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Trauma Symptoms ◽  
Emotional Symptoms ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Child Relationship ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractMost out-of-home placed children have experienced early adversities, including maltreatment and neglect. A challenge for caregivers is to adequately interpret their foster child’s internal mental states and behavior. We examined caregivers’ mind-mindedness in out-of-home care, and the association among caregivers’ mind-mindedness (and its positive, neutral, and negative valence), recognition of the child’s trauma symptoms, and behavior problems. Participants (N = 138) were foster parents, family-home parents, and residential care workers. Caregivers’ mind-mindedness was assessed with the describe-your-child measure. Caregivers’ recognition of the child’s trauma symptoms, their child’s emotional symptoms, conduct problems, prosocial behavior, and quality of the caregiver-child relationship were assessed using caregivers’ reports. Foster parents produced more mental-state descriptors than did residential care workers. General mind-mindedness, as well as neutral and positive mind-mindedness, related negatively to conduct problems. Besides, positive mind-mindedness was associated with prosocial behavior and neutral mind-mindedness with a better quality of the caregiver-child relationship and fewer child conduct problems. Negative mind-mindedness related positively to the caregiver’s recognition of the child’s trauma symptoms, and indirectly, to emotional symptoms. In conclusion, mind-mindedness seems to be an essential characteristic of out-of-home caregivers, connected to the understanding of their child’s behavior problems and trauma symptoms, as well as to the relationship with the child. The findings suggest a possible use of mind-mindedness in out-of-home care evaluation and intervention.

The Experiences of Indigenous Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care in Victoria, Australia

2019 ◽  
pp. 149-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mendes ◽  
Bernadette Saunders ◽  
Susan Baidawi
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Care Leavers ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reports on exploratory research in Victoria, Australia, involving focus groups and interviews with service providers and Indigenous care leavers to examine the impact of existing support services. Indigenous children and young people are highly overrepresented in the Australian out-of-home care system. To date, neither specific research focusing on this group’s experiences as they transition from care nor an assessment of the Indigenous-specific and non-Indigenous supports and services available to them have been undertaken. Findings suggest that Aboriginal Community Controlled Organizations (ACCOs) play a positive role in working with non-Indigenous agencies to assist Indigenous care leavers. Participants identified a few key strategies to improve outcomes, such as facilitating stronger relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous services and improving ACCO resourcing.

Is immunisation for children and young people in statutory care in Victoria 'all too hard'? A qualitative study with health professionals

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Thornton ◽  
Susan Webster ◽  
Meredith Temple-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Legal Consent

This formative study aimed to identify health professionals’ perspectives on vaccination issues among children in statutory out-of-home care in Victoria. Eight health professionals, drawn from a purposive Victorian sample known to be proactive in addressing the vaccination needs of children in out-of-home care, took part in semi-structured interviews. Questions addressed participants’ views about roles and responsibilities, barriers and enabling factors affecting vaccination, and ideas about systems improvements. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically. The main themes that emerged were health professionals’ observations about vaccine hesitancy among significant adults in the out-of-home care sector, the paucity of child medical history information available and diffuse responsibility for the provision of legal consent to vaccination. More accurate immunisation status monitoring appears warranted for children in out-of-home care. Unless the collection and maintenance of child medical records improves and vaccination consent processes are streamlined, health professionals will be limited in their capacity to provide efficient vaccination services to these children. Research on vaccine hesitancy among staff and carers in the statutory care sector may be of value. This study supports other Australian research that indicates these children may require more targeted, inter-sectoral immunisation approaches.

‘Getting our voices out there’: acceptability of a mental health participation programme for young people with out of home care experience in Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 1085-1093
Author(s):  
Jessie Rafeld ◽  
Kristen Moeller-Saxone ◽  
Sue Cotton ◽  
Simon Rice ◽  
Katherine Monson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
System Level ◽  
Mental Health Training ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Experience ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Meaningful Participation

Abstract Youth with experience of out-of-home-care (OoHC) typically have poorer mental health than their peers in the general population, and lack opportunities to contribute to service planning. Promoting mental health through leadership training may improve young people’s mental health and facilitate system change. The Bounce Project is a pilot youth-leadership mental health training programme co-designed with young people who have experienced OoHC. In this study, we evaluated the Bounce Project from the young people’s perspectives to explore the acceptability, successes and limitations of the training to promote the participant’s mental health and their contribution to system level change. Thirteen young people aged 18–26 years old who had experienced OoHC and participated in the Bounce Project were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and thematically analysed. Four major themes were thereby identified: making their mark; opportunities for growth; redefining roles and pitfalls of research participation. Participants valued the opportunity to have their voices heard, participate in research and learn about mental health. Perceived negative aspects included infrequent participation opportunities, interpersonal difficulties and frustration about the limitations of research including pressure to recruit and restrictive deadlines. Participating in the Bounce Project was a mostly positive experience, but young people also encountered barriers to meaningful participation. Youth with lived experience need more avenues to participate in research and leadership, but research programmes require specific designs that take into consideration the needs of participants and create opportunities for effective and meaningful participation.

scholarly journals Does Out-of-home Care Affect Compliance in Preschoolers?

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen J. Sternberg ◽  
Michael E. Lamb ◽  
Carl-Philip Hwang ◽  
Anders Broberg ◽  
Robert D. Ketterlinus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Maternal Behaviour ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Age Variations ◽  
Care At Home ◽  
Problem Solving Task ◽  
At Home

When they averaged 28 and 40 months of age, 140 Swedish children were observed with their mothers in two situations (a problem-solving task and a clean-up session) designed to allow the assessment of their compliance with maternal demands. Individual differences in their behaviour were then related to measures of the quality of care received by them both at home and in alternative care settings when they averaged 16, 28, and 40 months of age, the amount of social support reportedly received by the mothers, the children's ages, and the amount of early out-of-home care received. Analyses using partial least squares (PLS) analyses showed that children were more compliant in the task situation at 40 months when they had experienced high quality care at home, when they were older, and when they had experienced less out-of-home care prior to 24 months of age. Variations in maternal behaviour in these settings were predicted by the same set of variables, suggesting that parent-child harmony, rather than compliance, was being studied. No consistent dimension of compliance was evident at 28 months.

scholarly journals CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: THE CHOICE BETWEEN ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE AS CHILD PROTECTION RESPONSES

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Bonfili
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Choice Of Care

This article seeks to expand the conversation started in the primary article by Stephen Gay in this volume entitled ‘The Choice Between Adoption and Foster Care as Child Protection Responses’. It discusses the need for stability and permanence of care arrangements for children and young people living in out-of-home care in Part II before moving on in Part III to consider the option of widening the choice of care arrangements to better meet their needs. The importance of listening to the voices of children and young people and giving them a say in where they live and how they are cared for is also explored in Part IV.

scholarly journals Towards recognising practitioners working in out-of-home care as experts in everyday life: A conceptual critique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Conditions Of Employment

This conceptual critique elaborates on the phrase ‘experts in everyday life’, which the author first used in 2015 in connection with recognising the contribution of foster carers and residential care workers to the education of children in out-of-home care (OHC). The article examines the case for greater recognition of the children’s workforce in OHC, and situates the concept of ‘expertise’ in the rise of recognition of children’s status as competent social actors, as well as in professionalisation debates. The article examines two examples, drawing on the author’s prior research in residential care and foster care, of expertise in everyday life in OHC. It concludes that, viewed from a social pedagogical perspective, expertise in everyday life refers to the complex milieu, or environment, in which the activity is taking place, as well as the relational encounters and activities themselves. It refers to the capacity for supporting young people in the mundaneness and predictability of everyday events and routines. Recognition of practitioners as experts in everyday life is not a substitute for changes to the structural conditions of employment but is a first step towards it.

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