Foster Care Case Study

Raising children is one of the most important responsibilities in any society. Today, working parents have many options, but what about those children who have neither a mother nor father? What about those children who come from broken and abusive homes? In such cases there are often few choices. Parentless children may be placed in orphanages or in foster homes. Ideally, foster care offers children more personalized attention than would normally be available at a public or private situation. However, orphanage care is notoriously uneven. While some children are indeed in loving homes, others find themselves neglected or

The foster care system exists in order to enhance the lives of children whose parents were deceased rather than because of abuse today. Our outlook, principles, and ways of being concern for and protecting abused or neglected children and looking after families has shifted greatly throughout history. In this paper I will discuss and inform the readers on the three main components. The first part will discuss the foundation and growth of the foster care system as time pass. Secondly, describe the contemporary state of the system within the United States, including pertinent statistics. Lastly, considering future guidelines intended for the system, including ways in which the system can progress throughout the time.

When an adolescent comes into for therapy there is really never an easy task of finding out what is going on. Adolescent that come in who are part of the foster care system will add another degree of challenges. Children and adolescents that are put into the foster care system are not there because they choose to be, they are there due to some event in their life putting them there.

In the past few decades there has be an increasing amount of children placed in the foster care system. With the amount of rising teen pregnancies and maternal drug abuse means increasing numbers of infants abandoned at birth. There have been many cases of child abuse or neglect that have been on the rise. State and local agencies are unable to suitably supervise foster homes or arrange adoptions. Statistics show that many children will spend most of their childhood and teenage years in the foster care system, which has shown to leave emotional scars on the child. Today, Child Welfare groups are looking for federal funding and legislation to increase programs and services aimed at keeping families together.

Every year in the United States, hundreds of children and adolescents are taken from their parents and primary caregivers and placed in out-of-home care situations due to issues in their homes and family lives which contribute to unsafe living conditions. These children and adolescents often face many health, behavioral, developmental, and psychological issues.

As of 2016 there were nearly a half million children in the foster care system, with roughly 25,000 “aging-out” each year (Ahmann, 2017). Most adolescents “age out” of the system with no one to mentor or serve as a caring parent figure. Foster youth are in dire need of long-term adult role models to guide them to achieve success. According to Ahmann, 50% of foster youth left “the system” without a high-school degree, as well as with having higher rates of PTSD, and depression (p. 43). Ahmann presented that research has proven teenagers, in general, that have quality relationships from adults able to provide support, do better than those that do not. If research has shown efficacy in supportive adult figures in a teen’s life then one can conclude that foster youth would also benefit. Foster children are at a disadvantage a soon as they enter “the system” so giving them resources proven positive is vital to their future success.

The U.S foster care system is corrupt and the children trapped in it face the worst of it. The goal of foster care is to eventually reunite children with their parents or find the child a safe, loving home. Instead, foster kids face the harsh reality of abuse, mental illness, and temporary homes. The children and ripped from the homes they’ve known their entire lives because their parents struggle financially. The system would rather pay strangers to the child to take care of him/her rather than helping the parents of the child. This case would be called “neglect” when in reality most parents were doing all they could to take care of their children. The children’s new foster parents are paid hundreds of dollars per month. Often times, the money doesn’t go to the child and he/she is left truly neglected. The system is broken because children are taken from their homes for the wrong reasons and put into unsafe environments that will have a traumatic effect on the rest of their lives.

This paper is a summary of what research has been done in the field of foster care. It will focus on foster care social workers, foster care parents, children in foster care, etc. In this work there will also be reference to aspects of adoption and foster care together. This paper will encompass all parties affected by foster care and will ultimately talk about what qualities are expected of social workers who work in foster care.

Nationwide, nearly 397,122 children live in foster care. In California, which has the largest foster care population than any other state, the number of foster youth has tripled in the last 20 years (Source: AFCARS Report 2013) due to certain circumstance such as; physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or caretaker inability. Welfare workers turn over at continuing high rates, and many are underpaid, poorly trained, overworked and demoralized. Foster Care system welfare lacks providing services to prepare older youths in foster care in independent living are lacking. Many youths that exited the system discuss their experience such as, being let down, lack of role models, poor training programs, and lack of basic living skills. Foster

An adult’s psychological development depends on one’s childhood experiences with adults and their capability of providing nurturance, protection, trust, and security to the developing child. Children with current and previous ties to the foster care system were found to have behavioral, emotional, and social well-being issues. The United States averages more than 400,000 children in foster care during the year. Amongst these 400,000 children, as many as 50% have developmental disorders or psychiatric diagnoses (Hutchinson). Children placed within the foster care system are more likely to be found to have mental health issues due to the inadequacy

Imagine one day that all of a sudden when you and your siblings arrive home from school, and your parents are nowhere to be found. Your neighbor informs you that ICE officials raided your house and deported your parents. According to CNN News, that’s exactly what happened to the Soza siblings, Ronaldo, 14 and Cesia, 17. They are a prime example of what the effects of deportation can have on children. According to an ACR report there is an estimated 5,100 children who are currently in the foster care system. The foster care system would put the child in danger of never seeing their parents again. According to ICE there is an average, 17 children who are placed in the foster care system, due to the detainment and deportation of their parents

Life deals out cards from a deck where no one knows what luck they might get. Those in foster care, for example, receive one difficult hand in life; growing up without the nurture and care of a parent. In fact, Mother Teresa once said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty” (Calcutta 774). Even though people might lack necessities, such as food, water, shelter; the feeling of depreciation causes physical and mental pain. Foster care is a system that helps minors find a stable home; however, when they become adults at the age of 18, the government stops aiding them. In 2015, about 20,000 people that reached the age of 18, stopped receiving help from the government; being neglected from biological family, and welfare, make the thousands that age out of foster care more prone to becoming homeless and incarcerated ("Foster Care"). Even though, foster care’s purpose is to improve the life of those without a stable family, there are faults in the system that cause harm. Foster care has negative effects on humans, such as emotional trauma, anti-social conduct, and negative inclinations.

A lot of articles about the foster care system discuss how mental illness affects foster children, how trauma could lead to problems in caring for the foster child, and how an increased level of movement can affect their willingness to be social, which are all topics that students that are in the social sciences and humanities discuss on a day to day basis. For example, in the article “Changes in Externalizing and Internalizing Problems of Adolescents in Foster Care” by McWey, Cui, and Pazdera (2010), they used the National Survey of Child and Adolescent well-being longitudinal study to discuss the externalizing and internalizing problems of children in the foster care system based on type of maltreatment, gender and age. They used a

“I had no medical history. I had no shot records. I had nothing.” This was the response given by one of the foster caregiver participant in a qualitative research conducted by Greiner, Ross, Brown, Beal, & Sherman, 2015). Children in the foster care are among the most vulnerable population and have many health issues including chronic medical conditions and developmental delays. In addition, there is a high rate of mental health problems. As Greiner et al., 2015 depicted, children entering foster care lack organized documentation of their health history including immunization records. There are some efforts and policies in place to improve the provision of health to foster care children but they are implemented inadequately and lack coordination.

The study consisted of 12 parents who foster children ages 2-8 years old. The high levels of conduct problems among children in the foster care system and the added cost to families, society and services, there is a pressing need to support foster parents. Providing foster care to children with increased emotional, behavioral, and medical needs requires not only time, but patience in dealing with the child’s demands. Foster parents often voice they are unprepared to meet demand of children with increased behavioral and emotional needs and adolescents in their care. This situation can result in placement disruption, which further strains foster care resources and has negative impacts on foster children and youth. The incidence of conduct disorder