“Raising a child with a disability” was the topic of the information meeting for foster parents from the District Foster Care Team in Kardzhali and conducted by an expert of Hope and homes for children – Bulgaria.
Here are some of the reasons why foster parents want to raise only healthy children:
– Fear that they will not cope with raising a child with a disability.
– Fear of the many diagnoses that do not give them the opportunity to understand the real condition of the child. In many cases, the child is cured of an illness, but the diagnosis will follow him for life. When they read all the diagnoses, they often end up refusing care.
– Fear that they won’t have any free time.
– Reluctance on the part of foster parents to confront the health care system.
– Lack of overall understanding that the need determines a certain type of service and it is directed and done for the children and not to create employment.
– Lack of training for home care for specific diseases.
– Lack of showing positive examples of how successful foster parents of children with disabilities work.
By the end of the year, the Home for medical and social care for children in Kardjali will stop offering its services due to the proven inefficiency of the expensive services offered and without the necessary effectiveness for children. In its place, other services will function to help children and families from the district. The place of every child is in a family and that is the best for his development.
Seven are the required foster families to accommodate the children from the Home for medical and social care for children who have been assessed for raising in a family environment. Sixteen will be placed in family-type accommodation centers with permanent medical care, due to a lack of alternatives. The rest from the all 31 children will return to their biological families or go to adoptive parents.
The regional coordinator of Hope and homes for children – Bulgaria Kremena Stoyanova shared her long-term expertise and observations in front of foster families from Kardzhali, among whom there were both approved and candidates. Two foster mothers – Yordanka from Shumen and Sevgyul from Ardino told their touching stories and experience in caring for disabled children.
“Very often, with a sudden manifestation of a hidden disease in a child, we parents panic before the disease is diagnosed. When we have a child with a clear diagnosis, the treatment is also clear. In the event of an illness, the parents cope, and this is important to say. Yordanka and Sevgyul shared how they overcame their fears and how they have time left to use for themselves. Foster parents must have a cause and it must be the happy future of the children they care for,” shared Kremena Stoyanova after the meeting.
During the meeting, it became clear that we are ready to help in the training of every parent who will raise a child with a disability.
The rest is information, experience and help that can be provided by the Foster Care team, the Community Support Center, the day care centers, as well as any specialist from the Regional directorate for social assistance and Child protection department. Mariana Mushkova, director of Regional directorate for social assistance in Kardjali, told what kind of support foster families can receive from the state.
We strongly hope that we are support for foster families, who are an important link in the transition so that children do not suffer from institutional care.
