Objectives: As the team responsible for the selection of foster families and the corresponding matching proposals, we must not only make a good screening of which families can do a good job as fosterers, but at the same time... [ view full abstract ]
Objectives:
As the team responsible for the selection of foster families and the corresponding matching proposals, we must not only make a good screening of which families can do a good job as fosterers, but at the same time we must obtain updated information of the child’s life path, characteristics and needs, so we make matching proposals with high probability of success.
This working model must be integrated into a theoretical framework that guides all the actions and decision-making. In the case of Lauka Center, which manages the technical support to the foster family care service in Gipuzkoa, its reference is based on the paradigm of the child good treatment versus child maltreatment, children´s needs theory, attachment and loss, trauma and dissociation, neuroscience knowledge, personality and family systems functioning.
In the selection of families and matching process, although good techniques and measuring instruments are required, professionals with deep training in the above mentioned theoretical framework are essential. They must be able to identify the needs of children oriented to foster care; the weaknesses and the strengths of applicant families in regards to the relevant variables for the foster care; help foster families to understand what would be their role as resilient tutors; and finally, and promote decisions and proposals that identify which aspects are the strongest and the most vulnerable.
In this presentation, the framework from the Lauka Center is explained to provide a possible framework to organise this process in practice.
Results:
The selection process for families implies the attendance to an initial training session, to submit the required documentation and to attend various interviews that include the completion of different tests. For the professionals, on the other hand, it involves a very thorough analysis of the collected information that ends with an assessment report which includes: a description of the main results in the relevant legal criteria; the final statement of “Suitable or Non Suitable”; the case profile to which the family would be more suitable; the strengths and weak points of the family (when suitable); the resources that should be provided in the short or long term after a placement.
On the other hand, professionals will know the children in person and study the children´s characteristics and needs.
Our matching model, which has sequenced steps, implies a compatibility study between the possible child and the possible family, which analyses the variables considered sensitive, or even critical, and it has two crucial moments: when the family receives the “first screening call”, and the following “matching proposal interview”.
Finally, our model involves an analysis of the outcome of the matches, where we focus on knowing what has happened when a fostering is successful, is interrupted or ceases, and whether we can say that the matching has been satisfactory or not.
Percentage of assessments in which families receive a “suitable” (85%) or “non suitable” (15%) result will be reviewed, as well as the percentage of matches that have been successful or ceased.
Also, the main variables used when considering a matching will be raised and which variables are considered to have had greater influence in the cessation of the fostering.
Conclusions:
The presentation will end with some of the main conclusions the team has drawn, which have to do with both the selection of families, as with the variables that must be specifically controlled during the matching process, and that are the result of the analysis of the evolution of the foster family cases constituted after their matching.
Assessment and decision making in child welfare , Family foster care and adoption
