Focus on the Family Essay

Not all clients are resistant, not all organizations are uncooperative, not all communities are hopeless, and not all families are dysfunctional. I remember having a foster family my supervisor and I had a visit with while completing in-home visits. The purpose of this visit was to check-in with a client who we had recently placed there due to leaving their previous foster home for drug possession. When my supervisor and I met with the family we did not expect the report that we received on that day. The foster mother reported that she enjoyed having the client in the home and that she views them as one of her own biological children. My supervisor and enjoyed this visit because we were able to see how the family and the client got along. When the client first entered the Department of Social Services they had trust issues and was struggling with their anger. In my opinion, the client was angry and had trust issues because of the relationship they had with their biological mother. After seeing the client in the home with their new foster family the client was responsive to questions and reported that they enjoyed living with the family. They stated, “It feels good to finally be in a home where people actually seem to care about my well-being.” By hearing the client’s statement and observing them in the foster home I felt joy that my supervisor and I was able to find a home where their needs are being

The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household.

Parent and Community involvement does not occur overnight. I feel that schools must make parent and community involvement a priority, valuing and accepting each other’s differences. Schools, families and communities must work together to support all students in a learning environment to ensure every student is a successful learner. Positive family and school involvement fosters a partnership among my school encouraging students to reach their highest potential academically and in life. Parent and community involvement does not mean stay-at-home mothers coming to school to help as needed, or a businessman stopping by to see events occurring on campus. The role of school, family and community involvement is a partnership incorporating goal-oriented activities for all grade levels linked to academic success and student growth.

Different professionals and agencies should work together to help the child/young person and family early on when there are difficulties. They should not wait until something serious happens before taking action. For example, a health visitor might notice that a mother is getting very stressed by the behaviour of her toddler and is struggling to cope. Early intervention might involve talking to the mother, showing sympathy, and perhaps finding some support for her at the local children’s centre or setting up a programme of home visits. This would be much better than waiting to see if the situation becomes worse before doing anything. Although there is still a common view that social workers swoop in to take children away from their families, in reality, the vast majority of social work is about helping different agencies work together to support the family, so that the child or young person’s safety and wellbeing are assured.

And when children are abused, the foster care system came up to help. “Foster families provide a home for children who have been abandoned, neglected or abused. These children are in need of nurturing families who will help them heal and grow” (“Be a Foster or Adoptive Parent”). If the Foster care system was not in this world, then today billion of children would be homeless or died, so that's why the world need Foster Care. When children are abused or neglected by their parents, or when the parents cannot for any of a number of reasons care for their children, someone must intervene to see that the children are adequately looked after. That someone is usually the government, and the intervention is frequently foster care steps in. Every 10 seconds a new case come to foster care, about new children getting abused. Once the children are safely placed in foster care than caseworkers and laws come in. There are plenty laws related to foster care like parental rights. “The parental right are laws for parents to give the children protection, shelter, and food etc” (Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights). If there was no law, such as parental rights, today all children would be badly abused. A parent who had a problem with children, which caused to lose children than it means they also lose their parental rights. To get their children back or -- in other words, to get their parental rights back, the role of

Accounts of neighbors, bystanders or the child themselves need to be considered, and in some cases, more heavily than a visit by the caseworker. Emotions can be staged, it’s easy to lie, and a bystander could a valuable witness- they offer an objective evaluation- clearly impossible while following the family preservation model, and a family member may see the family more often than the caseworker, and therefore have a better evaluation of the situation. An important aspect is objectivity. Yes, the caseworker is going to become attached, but the main operation is to understand the situation, establish if abuse or neglect is occurring and find the best solution for the child. The family preservation model is not ineffective, but it produces an obligation for caseworkers to operate in the interest of the whole family, which can overlook certain problems for the betterment of the whole. As much as the model needs clear and precise guidelines and procedures, it restricts the ability to operate in a variety of situations. For me the problem resides in the contradictory job of being a mediator and enforcer. One would think that being a mediator helps to understanding how to effectively enforce, but the overlap produces inconsistencies, as you can never equally fulfill both roles. The caseworker is asked to too much at once, abuse is abstractly developed and enforced and sometimes rooted in more than

The foster care system has been stretched too thin as the turn of the 21st century rolled around. Higher entrance into the system with new policies and lower staff has given way to a new problem-the highly abusive environment that surrounds the whole system. The mistreatment of the children and their foster families within in the system is now a prevalent issue in the Child Welfare Organization. The long-term effects of the abusive foster care system comes from the mismanagement of the system such as the instability within placement, lack of rights to foster families, ignoring culture heritage and misused policies that create detrimental health for the children in later years. The harsh foster care system under the control of the government in the U.S. can be changed with the addition of reorganization to the agency via more staff and communication and stability through more permanent placements for the children as well as the families. First I will define what I mean by abuse and address the current problems that the foster care system is facing such as instability and mismanagement. Then I will explain what the possible negative long-term effects of entrance into the foster care system. Finally I will discuss what steps could be taken to change this situation such as the creation of stable housing and uniform programs for the foster care system.

Placement in the foster care system is meant to be temporary. This system is usually arranged through the courts or a social service agency. (Center, n.d.). Many children don’t get a say on the way their lives turn out. Their lives are decided by the courts, social workers, or the choices of their biological parents.

Group homes and kinship care are popular alternatives. A home that holds six or more children is considered a group home. This benefits the children by involving them with children of similar issues that they can relate to. Group homes encourage traumatized foster children to speak up and talk to their peers about their problems. The fear of being judged drops tremendously, resulting to foster children expressing their feelings rather than holding everything in. Kinship care is the process of children being taken from their parents and given to a close relative. Kinship care is organized through Child Protective Services. One major benefit of kinship care is instead of the neglected child going to a stranger, they go to a close relative. This makes them more comfortable and could even lessen the trauma that comes with foster

One study found that almost 60 percent of young children in foster care were at a high risk for a developmental delay or neurological impairment. (Child Trends) In Social Work practice, help meeting the needs of the children and families in the foster care system is our primary goal. Social Workers play a major role in finding replacement homes, qualified foster parents and coordinating resources for families. Clinicians are under the impression at times that the foster care system is a short-term fix for children but sometimes it become a long-term solution.

When a child is endangered in one’s own home, child protective services interfere to ensure the safety of the child. In some cases, when conditions at home are unfit regarding the safety of a child, foster placement occurs. Over a half million children within the United States reside in foster care. Out of these children, approximately 20,000 of them continue through their lives within the foster care system until the age of 18. This is referred to “aging out”. Once a child within the foster care system turns 18, they are no longer cared for by state or government agencies and must provide for themselves. For those who do age out of the foster care system, it is often that they find themselves lacking the necessary skills needed to make it on their own, which is often due to the lack of having a stable support system such as a family.

However, there are major problems in the Foster care/ Adoption system and many children continue too many years in foster care without a permanency plan. According to The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption and Foster care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008, there were 123,000 waiting to be adopted. Currently there are 200,000 plus children in foster care nationally. Many have been in continuous foster care for as long as 2-3 1/2 years. (1.) Initially children are placed into the foster care system because of high risk safety factors which determines how the government will respond. What’s not clear at the time is that the child may have underlining problems- mental health issues, truancy, juvenile delinquency. Once placed in foster care if the issues are not detected and the case management plans do not address the underlining problems they may be aggravated and increase the severity of the child’s conditions/ behavior. (2.) Many times agencies and case managers do not have access to information and files that their counterparts have even when they are involved in the same case because of

As the criminal justice system needs improvement within our society, the social care system needs a bit of enhancement as well. A policy recommendation that should be considered is the social worker that is in the child’s case should focus more on visiting the child. Children placed in the foster care system should be checked on frequently and evaluated as they are placed in such homes. A survey can be provided to children to see where they are mentally and physically during the time of adapting to a new environment. Children can express any concerns or problems they face during the time with their provider. However, in Antwone’s case, the social worker rarely came to check up on how Antwone was holding up in the household he was placed in during his childhood. His foster care provider abused him physically and

My family health assessment was conducted using the 11 Gordon functional health pattern. Marjorie Gordon’s functional health pattern is a guide for establishing a comprehensive nursing date base, using the 11 categories enable nurses determines the following aspects of health and human function (Gordon 1987). The Gordon 11 functional health patterns are health perception/health management, nutrition, elimination, activity/exercise, cognitive, sleep/rest, self perception/self concept, roles and relationships, sexuality and reproduction, coping and stress tolerance, values and belief. This paper will summarize the findings of each health pattern as well as the family based nursing

No one can’t meet a family like mine’s. My family is well diversified. Every family member plays an important role in all my family’s lives. In my family, there are four people: my father, my mother, my little brother and me. My father is one who brings money home and is also responsible for organizing and planning family trips. My mother is the one who is in charge for making meals and makes sure everyone eats at the appropriate times. My little brother is the pet of the family. He actually doesn’t have any responsibilities, for he’s the pet. I am the rock of support in my family. I always go beyond my parents’ expectations. I also support my younger cousins and little brother, by being a role model that they can look up to. Another