If the situation arises when a child's proper upbringing and favourable development are at risk and parents cannot or are not able to solve this situation by themselves, the child is, according to act on social and legal protection of children, considered as endangered (Act No. 359/2009 Coll., on social and legal protection of children).
It is not easy to determine the degree of risk and it is even harder to choose the suitable support service and involve parents, considering the degree of risk. A true professional makes the family realize that the problem solution is connected with responsibility and the quality care for children (Gjuričová, Š., Kubička, J., 2003).
During the last five years, several new sorts of support services have been created in order to attempt to provide support tailored to the needs of the aforementioned families (Act. No. 108/2006 Coll., on social services).
Social rehabilitation is an example of such auxiliary service. It emphasizes the bond between parents and children and brings out family ties in general (Act. No. 108/2006 Coll., on social services).
The acceptance of social rehabilitation is very difficult for every family. With regard to psychology, families must deal with complicated stressful situations (Bob, P., Vymětal, J., 2005).
Centre for children of South Bohemian region in Strakonice has been performing social and legal protection for children since 2006. The main target of the Centre for children is mutual communication with families, cooperation and rational problem solution. This would be barely possible without the participation of the family, or at least one of its members.
Mutual cooperation, empathy, thoughtfulness, helpfulness, sympathy and patience are essential for social work. In order to solve problems efficiently, it is also convenient to know the viewpoint of the family in relation to the provided service. The opinion of the family can reveal many issues.
Martin Karas is the director of the Centre for children, which focuses on active involvement of family in social rehabilitation. He highlights one of several problems - insufficient and unsystematic support of family from institutions in the process. Insufficient support may prevent children’s return to their biological family in time. In his studies he focuses on an important issue – the active participation of the family in problem solving.
The aim of this article is to point out that active cooperation with family, especially the opinion of family, is an important criterion of the quality of the partnership. The article contains interviews with participants and former participants of social rehabilitation; several conclusions were made based on these interviews.