Abstract

BRITO, Carolina Oliveira de; ROSA, Edinete Maria  and  TRINDADE, Zeidi Araújo. Family reinsertion processes as seen from the standpoint of foster care technical teams. Temas psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.22, n.2, pp. 401-413. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2014.2-11.

Foster care professionals have encountered difficulties in their attempt to promote the reinsertion of children and adolescents with their families within their own community. This fact alone is what forces those young persons to remain in foster care institutions for a longer period of time than is thought advisable. This, in turn, triggers off a great number of negative impacts on the development of those youths as human beings. As regards the process of family reinsertion, this paper investigated the technical teams of six foster care institutions located in Espírito Santo, Brazil. Two focus groups were conducted, with the participation of 12 technicians. The ecological insertion technique was also used, and the data were all recorded in a Field Journal. The results indicate credibility and involvement of the technicians in the reinsertion process despite all these difficulties: the non-adherence of the families to the family support program; the lack of understanding of some of the network's components as regards extended families; the family's insufficiency of financial resources; and the overvaluation of the institution as the ideal environment where their children can stay. Questioning the notion that all families are nuclear, encouraging improvements in the interaction between foster care institutions and the support network, and applying the principle of brevity are the major challenges that technical teams have to face in order to efficiently promote family reinsertion.

Keywords : Foster care; children and adolescents; institucionalization; family reunification.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )