Foster care services: a consumer perspective

Abstract

This thesis is designed to present the various perceptions, feelings and experiences of the people involved in the foster care system. Its main purpose is to evaluate foster care services through a consumer's perspective, to show how the consumers, including foster children, foster parents, or natural parents have common perceptions of the system. The study is quaIitative, exploratory, inductive and based on the principles of symbolic interaction ism in terms of its design. The foster care literature has been reviewed in order to discuss the various issues proposed by authors regarding foster care services. The Province of Alberta's foster care services have been examined and a demographic picture drawn. Functional and dysfunctional elements of the foster care system have been identified through the literature review. The research has been designed to represent the perceptual, emotionaI and experiential components of the respondents' Iives. A collection of 60 accounts from foster children, natural parents, and foster parents were obtained. These accounts were then categorized according to the category they reflected. The author returned to the literature to provide the theoretical basis for the data analysis. The following categories were chosen as they represent the more generalized version of perceptions, feelings and experiences being recounted by the respondents. They are iatrogenesis, bureaucratization, powerlessness and aIienation. The study ends with conclusions and recommendations for future research as well as for foster care services.