The need for medical and psychological help to children from foster families: case study

Abstract

This research is aimed to analyze the case of a ten year old boy who after five years of living in a foster family was moved to the institution with a 24-hours medical care. The research described in this article was conducted in compliance with ethical rules and does not contain any personal data of the respondents.

Experienced in childhood impaired attachment child traumas received as the result of losses and improper care provided by the biological parents can provoke prolonged pathological effects. The case of this ten year old boy shows how the hidden information about his mother’s death, and frequent losses of important people initiated the boy’s destructive behavior.

Accumulation of situations that exceeded the child’s adaptive potential such as transition from the elementary to secondary school, learning difficulties, foster parents divorce and new foster mother’s marriage served as the reasons for this destructive condition.

The limited range of important people increased the pathological influence of traumatic situation. The case described demonstrates the importance of professional supervision provision to foster and alternative care families in order to prevent the secondary traumatizing of children. Good training of alternative caregivers and control of their expertise will increase their abilities to partner interaction in the team of professionals to protect the child.