| Abstract [eng] |
Since 2018, foster care centers have been established in Lithuania with the aim of ensuring that all foster carers, adoptive parents, and those intending to become them, as well as all fostered and adopted children, have access to and receive counseling, psychosocial, legal, and other support. This is to ensure the proper upbringing of the child or adoptee in a family-like environment. Each foster family is assigned a foster care coordinator who organizes family support, assesses each foster child's needs, and interacts with the foster child and foster carers at least once a month. To minimize the number of children experiencing harm by entering institutional care, the role of foster care centers and foster care coordinators becomes particularly important. The coordinator provides services to the family, assesses the child's needs, and organizes support accordingly. Quality services and proper service organization are crucial components for the well-being of foster families and foster children. The contact person and service organizer for each foster family is the foster care coordinator. Therefore, it is important to analyze the role of the foster care coordinator in providing services to foster families to identify factors of successful coordination, collaboration networks, and the role in service provision. The aim of this study is to analyze and reveal the role and specifics of foster care coordinators in providing services to foster carers and their foster children, based on scientific management theories and by conducting empirical research. For the study, five foster care coordinators from different size foster care centers in different cities, each with varying case numbers, were selected. The research revealed that the experience of foster care coordinators in providing services to foster families is directly related to the internal and external resources of the foster care center. In centers with sufficient internal and external resources, the coordinator can organize services from other specialists to ensure the well-being of the foster family. In centers with limited internal resources, the services provided by the foster care coordinator are limited in scope, as there are no other services to coordinate, and the coordinator manages their activities alone. The study highlighted that collaboration with specialists working in child welfare faces challenges due to the incompetence of other field workers in understanding the foster child's situation. Successful collaboration with other institutions also depends on a strong foster care center leader. Successful coordination factors include a strong organizational culture and available internal and external resources. Additionally, the number of intensive and supportive services provided by the coordinator is not always realistically implemented, which can complicate problem identification in families due to limited direct work with foster families. |
