The Experiences of Social Workers while Preparing Children for Independent Living in the Community Foster Care Homes
Authors: Gudžinskienė Vida , Raudeliūnaitė Rita , Uscila Rokas 
Published: July 2017

The order of the Minister Social Security and Labour of December 18, 2013 adopted The Action Plan for the Transition from Institutional Care to the Family and Community Based Services to the Children with Disabilities and the Children who Have Lost Parental Care for 2014–2020. The purpose of the transition of residential institutions for children from institutional care to family and community-based provision of the services to the children, who have lost parental care, is to ensure a harmonious environment and conditions to the children, who have lost parental care, to grow in the family or household of guardians or adoptive parents and receive assistance in the community. It is important for a child to grow in a family environment which stimulates children’s independence, full and complete participation in the community and social inclusion. When restructuring children’s care homes, it is foreseen to create new and expand the existing community services which are alternative to institutional care: communal children’s care homes of up to 8 children when they are given residence in flats, houses. One of the priorities of the restructuring of children care is to prepare a child for an independent life. While the process of restructuring is underway' no studies', which analyze the improvement of the preparation of children, who reside in the community foster care homes, have been conducted. Therefore, it is relevant to conduct studies on the improvement of the development of independent life skills of children in the context of the restructuring of care homes.

The purpose of the study is to reveal the experiences of social workers while educating children for independent living in the community foster care homes.

The study questions: 1) What independent living skills children lack while living in the community foster care homes? 2) What difficulties are encountered by social workers while developing the independence of the children of the community foster care homes? 3) How social workers overcome arising difficulties?

Qualitative research type was chosen for the study. In the study, the method of a semi-structured interview, which enables to come close to the understanding of human experiences, designation of meanings, the definition of meanings and the construction (explanation) of reality, was used. The obtained data were analyzed by the content analysis method. Qualitative content analysis was carried out in accordance with the inductive, study data based and categories composed logic. According to J. W. Creswell (2009), content analysis is a technique which, having examined the specificities of the text, allows, objectively and systematically, draw reliable conclusions. The qualitative content analysis was performed regarding the following sequence (Creswell, 2009): repeated reading of the content of transcript interview texts, distinction of meaning elements in the text analysed, grouping of the distinguished meaning elements into categories and sub-categories, integration of the categories/sub-categories into the context of the phenomenon analysed and description of their analysis.

Criteria-based sample was used in the study. The informants were chosen according to the following criteria: 1) social workers who have a degree in social work, 2) social workers who work in the community foster care homes for children.

The study was conducted in the September-October of 2016 in the community foster care homes for children. 10 social workers participated in the study.

The study revealed that while preparing the children of the community foster care homes for independent living social workers experience the difficulties in (self-) developing domestic skills (food cooking, shopping, paying bills), social skills (communication and cooperation, organizational) and personal skills (the lack of adequate self-evaluation, self-control skills and self-confidence skills). Social workers, who work in the community foster care homes for children, develop independence skills in children by using verbal methods (individual and group conversations), assigning individual and group practical tasks, drawing on the team of the community foster care homes for children and cooperating with the specialists of other institutions. Social workers hope that the restructuring of institutional care and the changes related to it like creation of domestic environment and the possibilities for household management create better prerequisites for the preparation of children for independent living.