Abstracts Category : Other

We Love Them With All Our Heart: The Lived Experience of Fostering a Child with ADHD Where the Placement Breaks Down

by Andrew Holman Field

This study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology to understand the lived experience of foster families providing care for children with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) where the foster placement broke down. The data was collected through a semi-standardized interview process with foster parents representing five foster families. The essence was found to be a deep and enduring love between the families and their foster children. Four key themes emerged to express the foster families lived experience. Behaviours was the first theme representing the ever-present, persistent, overwhelming, and ultimately defeating behaviours participants experienced. The second theme was Anguish representing the intensity of emotion experienced by all participants in the presence of the behaviours. The third theme, Exhaustion and Failure, was a temporal theme representing the way all placements seemed to fade into breakdown. The breakdowns did not occur in response to culminating events but seemed to collapse with a final admission of failure. Finally, the theme Connection represents an enduring bond that existed between the foster children and parents in every family. An average of eight years after the breakdowns occurred, the participants were all having regular, positive, supportive, and typically parental contact with every child.This thesis is informed by an understanding of childrens rights that includes the right of and, it is contended, a legal obligation to ensure the successful care of all children, including children in care, to adequate health care designed to address mental health issues and, in particular, ADHD. The right of children to adequate health careAdvisors/Committee Members: Watkinson, Ailsa (advisor), Chalmers, Darlene (committeemember), Quinn, Declan (committeemember).