Abstract
A clinical psychologist and a medical doctor collaborated on conducting comprehensive assessments of foster families, including psychiatric assessments for foster children, then conveying appropriate ways to respond and take care of foster children. The program consisted of nine sessions, and nine foster families participated. Of the nine children enrolled, six had a tendency to disinhibited attachment disorder, one had borderline intellectual functioning, one had an unspecified anxiety disorder, and one had no mental symptoms. The three cases shown in the results made improvements after receiving advice on “handling irritation and anger”, “reviewing foster childʼs perception of oneʼs own life history”, “providing appropriate level of academic tasks”, etc. The programʼs effectiveness was evaluated via a questionnaire addressed to the foster parents and foster children before and after the program. Significant differences were found in the foster motherʼ comprehensive and the externalizing scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children-A (TSCC-A) responses from the foster children, suggesting the effect of this program. This research was conducted as a pilot study for future random sampling tests.
