
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990                   TAG: 9006190376
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FOSTER CARE

HELPING an abnormal child lead a normal life is no easy task. The effort can be complicated when a child lives in an institution, cut off from the daily routines and close relationships that most of us enjoy.

With such thoughts in mind, Roanoke mental-health and welfare officials are eyeing a new way to help emotionally disturbed children. They have received a $54,000 state grant to provide foster care and other special help to a child who has lived for years in state institutions.

The arrangement, a first-time effort in Roanoke, has been a success in Lynchburg and Bristol. If it proves successful here, other children may be moved out of institutions into homes. Not all are suitable candidates for home placement, but those who could benefit deserve a shot at a better life.

The value of living in the community instead of an institution is obvious. A child can attend a public school. At home, a child can learn the everyday skills needed to live independently, such as doing laundry, preparing meals and getting along with family members.

Taxpayers benefit, too. The $54,000 grant pays for guidance and counseling, periodic respite care and a $29,200 salary for foster parents. It costs taxpayers anywhere from $103,000 to $146,000 a year to keep a child in a state mental health facility.

Deinstitutionalization has flopped most places because people who were moved out of institutions never got the community care they were meant to receive. They wound up on the streets with no help at all. That outcome is less likely in programs for children.

State law requires that emotionally disturbed children be placed in the least restrictive environment, and that family separations be avoided whenever possible. Virginia has been falling short in those respects. A recent report by the Virginia Planning and Budget Department urges the state to expand alternative programs that allow troubled children to remain in their communities.

With adequate support from professionals, foster parents with a special tolerance for children with behavior problems can do more good than a team of institutional psychiatrists. It doesn't take a dollar-a-minute shrink to figure out that love and understanding are more likely to change a troubled child's life than the sterile atmosphere of state institutions.

by CNB