Fostering advice?

Question:

We would really like to foster children and I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this. My dilemma is I have a few health problems which caused a few problems in the past but are under control and don't cause much trouble at the moment, would this be held against us? I've been diagnosed with ME and fibromyalgia and was diagnosed with depression but my current doctor thinks that was more to do with conditions not depression as such. Any input grateful, I manage to work full time plus agency care work on top so am able to hold down a job.

Answers:
Firstly, I'm sorry to hear you have ME, I have had it for 14 years, so I understand what you are up against. The fibromyalgia and depression are almost certainly produced by the ME rather than separate conditions themselves. If its any help, I found a short course of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy really sorted out the depression, and I had had it for years, didn't touch the fibromyalgia or other symptoms though. If you are managing to work full time and do agency care work on top then you are doing very well, but need to be sure you are not likely to overextend yourself.

From what I understand about forstering, if you have an illness or disability, it is still possible to foster, and children who perhaps would be less challenging than others would be more likely to be considered for you. If you were to contact your local Children's Services department of the local Social Services as well as your local Adoption agency, they would be able to start the ball rolling for you, the fact that you work full time, and then some is likely to be more of an issue than your health, in that one of you would need to be around for the children. Please consider this carefully, ME is unpredictable and you can have relapses, you would need to consider how the children would be cared for if you were to experience a major relapse or deterioration of your condition, also, if you continue to over-extend yourself, as I did, it can dramatically, and permanently worsen your symptoms, and sadly for some, can be fatal. Perhaps when your symptoms have been stable for a year or more, you could effectively say that it would no longer present a problem. Given that you have dealt with these illnesses, work full time and do agency care work, you are showing that you are a strong character and foster children really need people like you.

Anyway, those are the two places to contact, I know there is not an issue about disabled people fostering as I wanted to do it, they didn't mind that I was a single parent at the time either, unfortunately, my illness got so bad I could no longer consider it, but I wish you all the best of luck, it takes a while to sort out, but I am sure it will be very well worth it, for you and the children. God bless.

Fostering is a huge undertaking, you probably know that.

Contact you local council or a fostering agency and start the ball rolling. During the application process exhaustive checks take place to ensure you are suitable for the roll.

That suitability is assessed by experienced professionals, after they have looked at all aspects of you and the environment the children may be living in

The process can take months so start now, and be assured that you will only be accepted for fostering if you are truly up to the work

Fostering advice?

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