Child in foster care

Question

Hello,
my granddaughter is placed in a foster home following a court ruling for ill-treatment.
I would like to know the percentage of CF children is placed in foster homes and having a normal life nonetheless.
Best regards

Answer

Hello,

I have no specific data to answer your question. The French, European or American registries collecting medical and social data from CF patients do not include information related to foster care.

In France there are many social structures organizing a host family placement of children due to the impossibility or inability of the native families to care for their child (actually often following a court decision). Some of these structures related to health facilities can provide foster care for children with medical problems in addition to the problem related to the family situation. Among others, this is the case of a medicalized family placement unit in Roscoff. This service resorts on foster homes approved by health authorities; since it has been set up, more than 40 years ago, it wellcomed twenty CF children but only 5 in the last decade and none at present. This decline appears to be related to the overall improvement of social conditions, improved monitoring (including social) of care due to neonatal screening set up in the late 80s in Brittany, to the opening of other foster care structures in the country (the medicalized family placement service of Roscoff initially wellcomed children from all over France).

Can those CF patients placed in foster care lead a normal life anyway? The answer to this question is difficult. What is a normal life? Can the life of a patient with cystic fibrosis be considered to be normal? What one can say is that these children were able to live in a family environment that brought them the attention and affection necessary for their development, they experienced problems related to their illness as others children raised in their native family. Some died (mortality during childhood was important in earlier decades), others as adults, have a professional activity and created their own homes. Most have retained strong emotional ties with their host family. The links they kept with their native families vary widely according to each personal story. Maintaining this relationship, when it is possible, however, is an essential concern of any foster care.
Hoping to have answered your question.
With best wishes for the new year.

Dr. Gilles Rault

28.01.2016