Proces pripreme i uparivanja udomitelja i djeteta

One of the hardest decisions that professionals in social welfare centres have to make is the decision to remove a child from his/her biological family. However, even after the decision is made, social workers still have a demanding task in front of them, because they have to decide on the placement of the child. First of all, they need to determine which type of care is the most appropriate for the child. Family foster care is one of the types of care for children who were removed from their biological families. The aim of family foster care is to provide a child with care and support in a stimulating and positive family surroundings. If foster care is considered to be the most appropriate type of care, than an expert has to determine which one of the available foster families best suits the child's needs, i.d. match the characteristics of the child and the foster parents. While assessing potential foster parents, experts strive to gather as much information as possible about them and their family which later on helps them in the process of matching. Before the placement is realized it is necessary to prepare the child for the placement as well as to prepare the foster parents and their family for receiving the child. The professionals in a social welfare centre play a key role in the process of preparation. The beginning of this paper depicts the process of assessing potential foster parents along with the process of selecting the optimal type of care for the child. Subsequently, this paper will describe the process of matching the foster parents and the child in practice, and the factors that influence the aforementioned process. The preparation of the child for the placement in the foster family and the preparation of the foster parents and their family for the reception of the child will be presented at the end of this paper.