Disabled Children Living Away from Home in Foster Care and Residential Settings

Practical Guide

Disabled children who are unable to live at home are doubly needy: in addition to their disability, they are deprived of normal family life. Children who do not grow up in a stable, nurturing environment are unlikely to achieve their potential. Moreover, disabled children often have complex medical problems.

Disabled children living away from home are often involved with many different professionals: although individually these professionals may provide appropriate support, the sum of their efforts rarely adds up to the actions of a ‘good parent’.

Disabled Children Living Away from Home in Foster Care and Residential Settings considers the key issues that must be addressed when disabled children move from the family home to new accommodation. It provides insights into the difficulties that these children face and looks at how the standards of care that they receive might be improved. It also makes suggestions about how professionals might work more effectively with each other and with the children’s care-givers.

List of contributors vii

Introduction 1
1. Disabled children: pathways to care 3
Jennifer Cousins

2. Invisibility, disability and the problems of public care 15

Mary Mather

3. Disabled children living away from home in the care system: coordinating medical and health services 28

Heather Payne

4. Health promotion and health assessments for Looked-After children: the role of the clinical nurse specialist for Looked-After children 36

Maraline Jones

5. Emotional and developmental issues for disabled children who live away from home 46

Annette Hames

6. Management of Emotional and Behavioural Problems 58

Tom Berney

7. Disabled Children in Foster Care: a review of interventions that improve health outcomes for children and support carers 67

Thomas Kus and Heather Payne

8. Eduation’s contribution to a holistic approach 74

Mike Searle and Allen Baynes

9. Finding out what disabled children with communication impairments want 87

Catherine Baines

10. Child Protection 100

Pat Cawson

11. Children with special health care needs in foster care in the United States 114

Moira Szilagyi