Foster families: urgently needed: loving home for children
The need for more foster families is increasing in Innsbruck. Deputy Mayor Johannes Anzengruber and Raphael Hölbling from the Board of Directors for Child and Youth Welfare appeal to face the responsible task.
Not every child has a home where it can grow up safely and sheltered. Many children experience violence within their own four walls, are neglected or die. Parents come up against limits that they cannot overcome despite support. “Foster parents are still urgently needed for these children,” says Deputy Mayor Johannes Anzengruber.
“Familial stress factors can promote inappropriate parenting behavior, which can manifest itself in the form of a violent parenting style,” Raphael Hölbling from the child and youth welfare office and adds: “A significant increase in psychosocial stress and problems in families can also be observed due to corona-related restrictions.”
This is shown above all by the increasing number of cases in relation to risk assessments, which were reported by the child and youth welfare department in the city council in the previous year. Around 1,200 hazard reports were recorded in 2021. This means a slight decrease of 1.25 percent compared to 2020 (1,203 reports). Compared to 2019 (880 reports)i.e. the year before the start of the corona pandemic, the numbers are still the same significantly increased (35 percent). “Fortunately, in most cases it is only a question of support,” says Hölbling. However find per year also between 30 to 50 child births instead of.
“Whatever the reason for a child being taken from its family of origin,” emphasizes Anzengruber, “every child has the right to grow up in a loving and safe home.
30 foster families in Innsbruck
In the previous year, a foster child was taken over by a foster family in Innsbruck. Some other children from Innsbruck were placed in foster families throughout Tyrol. A total of 76 children and young people from Innsbruck 2021 with foster families throughout Tyrol. “We have the care supervision for 30 foster families in Innsbruck, but children from all over the Tyrol are also housed there,” explains Hölbling. “These are usually permanent foster homes. This means that the foster children, who are between the ages of zero and three when they are admitted, are accompanied by their foster parents until they become independent.”
In principle, single people, unmarried people or same-sex couples can also take in a foster child. In any case, it is important that the child can rely on stable, sustainable relationships in the new family and is completely accepted – with everything that it has already experienced in its family of origin.
supportive accompaniment
Anyone who is interested in taking in a foster child will receive precise information from the social workers in the child and youth welfare service about the prerequisites and requirements for a foster relationship. Caregivers, regardless of their previous education, have to complete a foster parenting course, work closely with child and youth welfare and give them an insight into their family life.
The child and youth welfare service not only regularly checks whether the child has integrated well into its new foster family, but also supports the social workers with advice and action in challenging situations. For example, the foster parents are accompanied by a specialist at the beginning of the foster relationship.
For all those interested in adopting foster parents, the city of Innsbruck will organize an information evening in the fall. Interested parties can contact the Office for Child and Youth Welfare at [email protected].
more on the subject
More information about Johannes Anzengruber
More information about the city of Innsbruck