There are cases in which the biological parents cannot take care of their children, so the guardianship of the children passes to other relatives or to the administration.
In the latter case, they may be in a center living with other children or they may be with foster families.
In principle, the idea of foster care is that it should be temporary, because if the conditions allow it, we try to return the children to their biological family. When this is not possible, other solutions such as permanent foster care or adoption are considered.
What are the benefits of foster care?
Foster care is a form of temporary help and protection for children in a vulnerable family situation. It involves fostering and caring for newborns, children and adolescents. A family can do a lot of good to a child in this situation.
In any case, it is necessary that all the people who want to foster, get involved in every way and take the risk of loving someone they will later have to say goodbye to again, with the aim of remaining a reference for these children much longer than the time they lived with them.
Host families
Generally, people who want to foster have dual feelings. On the one hand, they are happy about the fact of fostering, but on the other hand, they are sad because the family that was supposed to take care of them can no longer do so.
At the farewell, foster families are also often sad, but at the same time happy, because the child is adopted or because the biological family has recovered sufficiently and has the resources to take care of the child.
What types of foster care are there?
There are different types of foster care:
- Emergency or diagnostic foster care: when the child is moved to a safe and welcoming place while the situation in the family is determined and more stable measures are decided.
- Longer-term foster care
- Permanent foster care: for children who cannot be placed for adoption and cannot return to their biological family.
- Pre-adoptive foster care
- Foster care for newborns: in some cases, there are very difficult physical situations.
- Adolescent foster care: in these cases, the foster family becomes a reference for their whole life, because they go beyond cohabitation.