Foster Care Case Study

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.

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.

Case managers are involved with juveniles from the moment they enter the system until they complete probation and/or parole. In addition, they conduct detention screenings and intake interviews, complete risk/needs assessments, and make recommendations to the family court judges regarding case disposition. They also coordinate case diversion and supervise

According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, the main goal of foster care is to one day return the children to their families. To this end, they are assigned a caseworker who is responsible for working with the foster family, the child, and their biological family or caregiver, providing them resources and ultimately facilitating the child returning home. (Department of Health and Human Services)

The chosen population of interest for the course project is children who are placed in foster care. Children in foster care are considered vulnerable due to a variety of reasons for which they are taken away from home and placed in the child welfare system. Foster care children are often removed from their home due to physical abuse, drug exposure, or in some cases due to parental inability to fulfill the child basic necessities. Foster care children are at greater risk of mental, health, and behavioral problems (Lovie, Beadnell, & Pecora, 2015). Case management is an essential part of the care plan to improve the outcomes of the population of interest. Foster care children face additional problems when the health care system is inadequate.

outside agencies that now work side by side with Foster care to assist when needed.” (Webb) Some of those agencies are Guardian Ad Litems, to speak on the child’s behalf in their

When children come into the custody of DCFS and are placed into Foster Care they are scared, confused, lonely, and usually conditioned not to tell when they are being mistreated. Most of the children that come into “the system” have learned to accept abuse as normal or natural and are unaware that they are even being mistreated. Therefore, when they are placed in homes where this is occurring it is not in their nature to speak up. Once they are removed from their parents, they are solely reliant on the department for their protection and it is the department’s responsibility to provide that protection which has not always been fulfilled by the department or the foster care agencies. The department should be making reasonable efforts to provide proper services

Children suffer significantly until someone decides to protect them. The government allocates funds to establish the foster care system and that system advances to enforce rights for children. When the right to remove children from an abusive situation first originated, the foster care system established a separation procedure for children from their abusive homes. This act of removing children from their families brought about psychological issues and trauma. Throughout earlier years, the foster care system adjusted their program according to the rules and regulations established to provide for the needs of children. However, problems keep appearing elsewhere. These children endure the brunt of every new philosophy in behavioral health management. Often, the biological parents will be left out of the solution. The foster care system develops services to train foster families in caring for foster children and behavioral issues. For some reason, the foster care system believes improvement simpler to reform the children and makes a trivial attempt of the reformation with family. The foster care system needs to try to achieve bonds within the biological family instead of the sole reliability on removal of children to be an adequate answer. The foster care system’s obligation should be to develop a training system for the rehabilitation of families and offer support to achieve the greatest outcome in child rearing. Foster care needs to adapt to supporting families emotionally,

A family partnership meeting (FPM) is a “deliberate and structured approach to involving youth and families in decision-making through a facilitated meeting of family, their identified supports and professionals working with the family” (Family Partnership Meetings, 2013). Virginia Department of Social Services uses FPM to engage families in the decision-making process when a child is at risk of coming into foster care, foster home placement disruption, and permanency planning (Family Partnership Meetings, 2013). With that said, foster parents are considered as professional members of the multidisciplinary team, working together to meet the needs of foster children (Child Welfare League of America, 2008). This

Many systems are goal oriented. They interact with the environment in order to achieve a specific goal or target. The primary goal of placing a child in the TFC agency with medically fragile children is to meet the medical and mental health needs present (Youth, 2014). Additionally, a sense of permanency is the end goal for all children in the suprasystem of foster care. This would come by way of returning the child back to their original home with their parents or guardians or having the child adopted by

The overrepresentation of African American children in the foster care system is a major issue in the United States. African American children only represent about fourteen percent of the child population in the United States, yet represents for thirty percent of the children in the foster care system (Lorthridge, 2011). Ards (2012) stated that African American children are one and a half times more likely to be involved with child protective services and two times more likely to be placed in an out-of-home placement compared to any other race. Being a minority in a country, but the majority in an institution, such as foster care, is a significant problem. Not only is the overrepresentation of African American children a matter of question, but their experience while in foster care is concerning as well. African American children are overrepresented at every aspect in the foster care system and the numbers are not decreasing. According to Anyon (2011), African American children are overrepresented at every stage/decision point in the foster care system. The five stages are known as the five key decision points, which are, report of abuse and/or neglect, referral of report for investigation, reunification, out-of-home placement and termination of parental rights, and exiting the foster care system (Harris, 2008).

More than two-hundred and fifty thousand children enter the foster care system each year, making it extremely difficult to find the right caregiver for each child. There are so may effects on the child that last their entire lifetime, making it difficult for them to trust others. Not being able to trust their peers, they often find it hard to make friends and long-term relationships last. Fortunately, there are many results that can improve everyone’s position in placing the child. Foster care agencies repeatedly create destructive situations due to the selected caregiver, as well as the plethora of glitches that are created. Due to the unacceptable and inappropriate selection of foster parents, the child frequently experiences difficulties and disadvantages later on. Most children are placed into foster care because of mistreatment and experience the same treatment in their foster homes. Unfortunately, a lot of times the foster parent will take their anger out on their foster child, making a wide array of short-term and long-term complications for the child.

Maximizing the accessibility of foster care sectors would allow for substantial attention to more foster care children, leading to better mental health in an average foster care child. Furthermore, local institutions could be allowed more flexibility in terms of federal funding usage, which could result in a more centralized focus on providing the best outcomes for children involved in foster care. Changes in current policies, such as the aforementioned ASFA, would additionally aid in lessening the unclarity in cases and allow for a greater focus on the well-being of children. Removing children from unfit environments must be done at a faster rate and within maximum reasoning. Children are the future, and we need to attempt to help the future be the best it can

One way Maurice William’s faces problems in the foster homes is to have a meeting with every foster parent under their program every three months. In this meeting, all issues are discussed in great length and an appropriate procedure to deal with each specific problem are agreed upon and implemented so that the problems do not come up

A RT proposition is people conform to the role they assume, attempting to carry-out role expectations. For foster parents, their role is defined by foster parent training and behavioral intervention training (Farmer & Lippold, 2016; Schofield, Beek, Ward, & Biggart, 2013). Unfortunately, some pre-service training curriculums do not adequately prepare foster parents to work collaboratively as professionals with other professionals (Christenson & McMurtry, 2009; Cooley & Petren, 2011; Dorsey et al., 2008). The assumption is individuals that participate in pre-service trainings with a curriculum that defines the role of foster parents as professionals are more likely engage in FPM and permanency planning. These foster parents will