A demonstration project in foster care for mentally retarded children, 1971

Abstract

Foster care is a very important element in the care of children who must for some reason live outside their own homes. Foster care has been proven to be a service which the community can offer to children most nearly simulating the natural home environment. Foster care for the mentally retarded child has been infrequently tried and pushed because of the difficulty on social workers' part in being able to locate foster parents for the mentally retarded child and in being able to work with them. For this reason the proposed project herein concluded is a rational basis by which many children who have not been able to develop their potential can profit from an organized, specialized attempt to meet their special needs. This proposal is offered as an alternative to institutional care for which many children are not able to find relief because of the long waiting lists and the inability of institutional care to meet many of these children's needs and to help them develop to their capacity. Foster care of most nearly simulating the natural home environment, induces the development of the child's fullest potential and under supervision of a social worker and consultants can presumably have his human and specialized needs met in a more humane and less formal atmosphere