The National Foster Care Association will continue to widen its support for foster parents throughout Bulgaria. Three leading specialists - psychologists and a supervisor will provide consultations in childcare and issues in the dialogue with other participants in the foster care service. Some of the topics of consultation and support will be: difficulties in children’s adaptation to the family, foster parents’ emotional issues in communicating with birth families or specialists, and their suffering upon being separated from the foster child, etc.

In order to take advantage of the consultations, the foster parents must make a request on +359 879 279 281 and provide their personal data as well as that of the foster child placed with them. The data collected from the families will be used solely for internal purposes and the information from the consultations will be kept confidential. The only condition is that the foster parents have access to SKYPE.

Research, performed by the NFCA shows that the connection between foster parents and their social workers or other specialists in the system is getting ever weaker. Foster parents are afraid to share their problems and difficulties. Many organisations and institutions offer services and support to foster families, but, for a number of reasons, not all families have access to them.

The three specialists giving consultations to foster parents are:

• Vera Kolesheva, expert in social work with children
• Kremena Simeonova, psychologist
• Vladimir Ivanov, psychologist