Only 100 of almost half a million adult citizens of Montenegro need to be trained in foster care in order for Montenegro to ensure that every child grows up in a family, announced today from UNICEF in Montenegro.
"At the same time, it is the most cost-effective solution for the reform of the child protection system, since, according to research conducted in EU countries, placing children in an institution is on average three times more expensive than foster care. It is for these reasons that UNICEF calls on the Government of Montenegro to establish a Center for Foster Care , which would be in charge of training foster carers, monitoring quality and promoting foster care in the country. UNICEF also calls for the further development of the family associate service, through which social workers regularly visit families in crisis to help them stabilize and to prevent the displacement of children from of their families," the announcement states.
The statement adds that the head of the UNICEF representative office in Montenegro, Juan Santander, visited the Children's Home Mladost in Bijela.
"Today in Bijela, I heard that there are 90 children in Montenegro without parental care, and among them there are also children with developmental disabilities. All these children should be in families. In order for this to happen, Montenegro should establish a Center for of foster care, who will be in charge of training all foster carers, but also of promoting and monitoring the quality of foster care services in Montenegro," Santander said during a visit to the Children's Home in Bijela.
He pointed out that special support is needed for foster families who would take care of children with developmental disabilities.
"In addition, UNICEF calls for an increase in financial support for foster care so that those who want to become foster parents can provide the child with a decent standard of living," UNICEF in Montenegro said in a statement.
They also stated that the experts at the Children's Home in Bijela support UNICEF's appeal for the urgent establishment of a Foster Care Center in Montenegro.
"What is extremely important for our institution, in the time to come, is the development of the Center for Family Accommodation, i.e. foster care. The service we call the Center for Family Accommodation, i.e. foster care, will result in a smaller number of children being placed in this institution, which is , of course, the goal for all of us," said Marela Savić, head of the Department for General and Legal Affairs at the "Mladost" Children's Home in Bijela.
UNICEF in Montenegro stated that in order to prevent the separation of children from their parents and reduce the number of children who need to be placed in foster families or adopted, it is necessary to provide support to families in crisis through the service of a family associate.
"For this very reason, we call for an increase in the number of social workers who visit families in crisis situations to help them overcome difficulties and to avoid the displacement of the child from the family," Santander said.
The announcement also states that the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare also recognizes the value of the service called family associate and the need to develop it further.
"It is necessary to point out that the family associate service is what is very important to standardize and develop in the coming period, as well as that, in this sense, foster care services, such as not only relative, but also non-relative foster care, then urgent and specialized, in the coming period, we are developing more than has been the case so far," said Marija Stajović, acting director of the Directorate for Social and Child Protection in the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare.
UNICEF in Montenegro said that in December last year, in a nationally representative survey conducted by Ipsos, 77 percent of Montenegrin citizens stated that it is best for a child without parental care to be placed in a foster family, rather than in an institution.
"Three quarters of citizens stated that any child, regardless of personal characteristics, can be placed in a foster family or adopted. These data indicate that the majority of Montenegrin citizens support greater investments by the state in services such as the Foster Care Center and the Family Associate, which would enable every child in Montenegro to grow up in a family", said UNICEF in Montenegro.
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