The most severely affected may require a completely supervised and sheltered environment. For more functional patients, a group home or halfway house for developmentally disabled adults may be appropriate if continued residents with a family is not possible or desirable. The foster or adoptive parent of a child with FAS assumes a responsibility far beyond that normally associated with parenting. The constellation of physical, intellectual, and behavioral characteristics that typifies patients with FAS can create a very demanding situation for any family. The children often require constant supervision.
Parents require an extraordinary amount of energy, love, and most of all, consistency.
Therefore, these parents need support in their efforts. This support can often be provided by the social service network to help prevent the burnout that often accompanies high-stress parenting situations. Parents must have a realistic view of the child's functioning in order to develop reasonable expectations and plan appropriate interactions for the child in order to minimize management problems. Adoption of FAS patients, as with other special needs children, can mean high costs and low subsidies for families. The recent emphasis on adoption of special needs children has focused on this problem and is attempting to address these issues.