Child
Placement must include a mental health care component
When
protective placement is unavoidable, children need a surrogate
family system that will provide a caring environment :
Caring in terms of taking care of the children (preventive) so that they develop to the full
extent of their capacity; and in term of providing the necessary care (curative)
so that
the children can overcome early onset disorders.
-
separation and integration in a foster family are not sufficient in and
of themselves because of the lasting consequences of any severe disturbances in
early relationships
-
the protective placement must therefore, not only allow for the treatment
of the bond which will continue to exist between the children and their parents,
but also the sustaining of a relationship with their foster family.
These
professionals have now come together in a network, the RIAFET, founded on some
40 years of practical experience and the resulting theoretical knowledge to bring a hands-on response to the needs in
the field.
The RIAFET
fits within the current constellation of
associations that exists in this domain (ANPF, GREPFA, IFCO, etc.) with the
specific goal of promoting, developing and defending the practice of therapeutic
Child Foster Care.
The RIAFET
aims to create and facilitate a rapport between the numerous teams
working with the same principles and for whom an exchange of information and
experience can provide an enriching and rewarding support.
The RIAFET
means to encourage and
facilitate information transfer regarding :
-
Conditions necessary for the proper development of children;
-
Parenting disorders, their origin and consequences;
-
The concept of foster parenting;
-
Disorders of early bonding , their consequences and potential cures;
and to examine
the relationship between this accumulated knowledge and the means and
objectives of current systems for child protection and treatment.
Further, the
RIAFET aims to assemble and organize all data that could illuminate
and quantify the therapeutic impact of Child Foster Care and its underlying
mechanisms (research and evaluation)
Finally, the RIAFET will undertake to contact the various organizations and services whose support is indispensable to the promotion and defense of this practice.
July 2005
Founders of the Network RIAFET - Mr Christian ALLARD (Joinville-le Pont), Dr Cathy FOURES (Paris), Dr Jean-Louis NOUVEL (Poitiers), Dr Martin PAVELKA (Sainte Geneviève-des-Bois), Dr Pascal RICHARD (Paris), Dr Hana ROTTMAN (Paris).