Children referred to foster care, family-style group care, and residential care: (How) do they differ?

“Several times I have asked the judge to get my children back”: 10 years of foster care complaints at the Flemish Office of the Children's Rights Commissioner

“…The choice of foster care is internationally defended as a better alternative to residential care from a children's rights perspective, in particular the child's right to grow up in a family environment (Lundström & Sallnäs, 2017; Van de Bruel & Stroobants, 2016). The growing realization that an institutional placement has far‐reaching short‐ and long‐term consequences for both the parents and the child has led to the development of various national and international guidelines concerning out‐of‐home placement (Colton & Hellinckx, 1994; Scholte, 1997; Leloux‐Opmeer et al, 2017; Rietveld‐Van Wingerden, 2017). Several national children's laws at the beginning of the twentieth century indicated that “the BIC” was an important touchstone in this decision.…”

“…To this day, European societies struggle with the question of how to deal best with, and organize care for, those children who, for various reasons, need to be placed out of their home (Colton & Hellinckx, 1994; Leloux‐Opmeer, Kuiper, Swaab, & Scholte, 2017; Scholte, 1997). The answer to that question depends on the state's perspective concerning its own responsibility for the upbringing and education of its young citizens (Bywaters, Brady, Sparks, & Bos, 2014).…”

The Needs of Foster Children and How to Satisfy Them: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Foster children show less prosocial behavior (Fernandez 2008 ), and a recent meta-analysis shows that age-appropriate social functioning does not improve during foster family placement (Goemans et al 2015 ). Compared to other types of out-of-home care, children in family foster care require specific attention for attachment-related difficulties (Leloux-Opmeer et al 2017 ). Contact with their birth family can be problematic due to the problems of their birth parents (Kufeldt et al 1995 ).…”

“…Although the operationalization differs between studies, prevalence of mental health problems among foster children seems to fall between 44 and 66% (Arora et al 2014 ; Bellamy et al 2010 ; Maaskant et al 2014 ; McNicholas et al 2011 ; Scozzaro and Janikowski 2014 ). While this prevalence is high, children in family foster care have fewer mental health issues compared to children living in more restrictive out-of-home placements (Lardner 2015 ; Leloux-Opmeer et al 2017 ; McNicholas et al 2011 ). Around 6% of children in foster care seem to experience a complex combination of medical and mental health problems (Yampolskaya et al 2014 ).…”

Reporte de padres, profesores y cuidadores sobre problemas de comportamiento externalizado de niños y adolescentes en acogimiento residencial versus niños que viven con sus familias

“…Es importante también que las instituciones de acogimiento cuenten con un equipo de salud y atención psicosocial que les apoye en el cuidado de los niños, además como una medida de prevención de riesgos y promoción de salud infantil. Sobre el particular, se ha afirmado que los niños en acogimiento residencial tienen una necesidad especial de atención especializada en enfermedades mentales, problemas de comportamiento y escolares / de aprendizaje (González, 2018;Leloux-Opmeer et al, 2017). Investigaciones reportan que, de 1216 niños, menos del 50% estaban recibiendo algún tipo de tratamiento de salud mental, a pesar de que el 61% se identificó dentro del rango clínico en algunas de las escalas de banda ancha del CBCL (González-García et al, 2017).…”