Louisiana Baptist Home Residential Child Care: A Case Study

The correlation of mental health and substance use in adolescence is very problematic. Many believe that the relationship between the two are so strong that it plays a causative role in the development of adolescents. It places adolescents at risk for problems within their families, communities, and as an individual. This disease can be severe enough that it impairs the adolescent 's ability to function as a person. Both mental health and substance abuse are entangled within one another, that it makes it difficult to decipher which condition is causing each symptom. However, several research studies concluded that adolescents who suffer from mental illness may self-medicate their symptoms by using drugs. The juvenile justice systems suffer from adolescents with mental health disorders, substance abuse or even both.

Children are often unable to consider the long term consequences of their actions, have difficulty taking the perspective of others, and typically have

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.

Growing up with substance abuse parents can potentially put the children at risk for developmental deficiencies. Parents who are substance dependent are oftentimes focus on themselves over their children, and this leads to neglecting the children. Without the attachment with the parents, children are lack of security and trust to explore the outside world. According to Erik Erikson, children develop at different stage. Infants are totally dependent on their parents. If parents provide the good care and support to the children, they will develop the basic trust to their parents and the world, otherwise, they will feel insecure and develop mistrust instead. This mistrust may cause problems later in life. As children begin to grow and navigate the challenges of adolescence, parental substance abuse has a direct impact on their well-being, as well as their behavior. Teenagers are eager to seek their identities. Yet, growing up with mistrust, inferiority, and shame

Adolescence is a critical time of development. During this period there are significant changes in brain development, emotions, cognition, behavior, and personal relationships. It is during this time that most major mental health disorders appear, many of which carry over into adulthood. Behavior patterns such as substance abuse also often develop during this time and may continue throughout adulthood. Many adolescents struggling with mental health issues begin to exhibit symptoms such as acting out at home or in school, showing a decreased interest in activities that they previously enjoyed, or bringing home poor grades. Others ultimately are charged with offenses ranging from status

Jordan is adjusting to her first foster care placement. The youth expresses not having a problem following the house and DSS rules. Jordan is struggling with the possible length in time in foster care. She hopes to leave DSS custody before the end of August 2015. Jordan withholds her feelings and does not demonstrate healthy coping skills. The youth allowed to have supervised phone calls with DSS approve family members.

For example, the Fastow Supported Housing Program services youth who are in the process of aging out of the child welfare system (Legacy Treatment Services, 2016). The support given to these children—from Legacy— is supposed to model the home life, while being away from home. The Fastow program offers affordable apartments, case management services, college and job preparation, and life skills training. The Community Residences for Children—which is usually referred to as the Children’s Homes Campus—offers housing to children aged between the years of 11 and 19 with emotional and behavioral concerns (Legacy Treatment Services, 2016). Legacy Treatment Services also has a Family Crisis Intervention Program, which provides brief family therapy, casemanagment and court advocacy for families who experience extreme conflict, and although the goal is to prevent out of home placement, sometimes children are placed by the state after not following through with court ordered treatment. Lastly, Legacy offers therapeutic foster care and reunification services for

Another considerable factor of this problem is the influence these substances have on children. Alcoholism in the home is an extremely hard issue to cope with as a child. Domestic violence, which is often worsened by alcohol abuse, causes a lot of mental issues that affect children permanently. Many kids do not have a stable home and are forced to see their parents and loved ones struggle with drinking (Hopkins 7). Suffering through the effects of drugs and alcohol also make education a challenge. Children often times stay home from school or are inattentive during class due to lack of sleep from late-night parties or rowdiness at home.This makes it almost impossible to succeed later in life and lets the problem continue onto the next generation.

This inability to cope with their child’s intellectual or developmental disability often leads to improper care, and in extreme cases, abuse. Aside from the abovementioned causes, a small percentage of placement is due to particular environmental factors such as financial need, inadequate housing, or chronic unemployment, but poverty frequently contributes to the crises that require children to be placed in foster care (McDonald). While the overall goal is to reunite these children back with their families, sometimes that option isn’t feasible and while some children are fortunate enough to gain kinship care, others aren’t as fortunate. “Foster care includes a wide variety of placement options including emergency shelters, diagnostic centers, foster boarding homes, kinship foster homes, agency-operated boarding homes, group homes, group residences, child care institutions and residential treatment centers” (FC & EC). With so many options for placement that a child can be exposed to, it provides various dimensions that can impact child development, especially with those with past trauma history. The type of residence a child is placed in, whether it’s kin or non-kin, how many children are already in the residence, the type of staff and the support services provided all play a crucial role in their developing growth and overall success in the system.

There is a dramatic increase in the amount of “aged out foster youth” within the state of Delaware. Programs have been developed with this in mind; one that stands above the rest is the Elizabeth Murphy School. Though the Elizabeth Murphy school has developed a program for the youth who have aged out of foster care changes needs to be made to their program regarding the lack follow up care of aged out foster care youth after completing their Independent Living program. The Elizabeth Murphy’s mission statement follows as “It is my desire that this institution shall be a fostering home where children, who would otherwise be neglected, may have a happy childhood; and where they may have the fullest opportunity to develop toward useful and efficient

Missouri Baptist Children’s Home was established on April 1, 1886, and has been serving children, youth, and families since that time. Through a restructuring of the corporation in 2001, MBCH Children and Family Ministries (MBCHCFM) was organized as the service delivery agency for Missouri Baptist Children’s Home for a total of 16 years in business as currently constituted. MBCHCFM is licensed by the State of Missouri as a child caring and as a child placing agency, and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation. Before the restructuring of the corporation as noted above, Missouri Baptist Children’s Home has been accredited since 1977. Long before accreditation was required for state contracts, our agency was committed to reaching the highest standard of care and made the decision to become accredited through COA.

Research has shown that often there are risk factors involved during childhood and adolescence which predict the likelihood of an individual becoming involved in crime later in life. Such a discovery begs the question if intervening and therefore reducing these risk factors would prevent future criminality. This essay firstly will begin by explaining what is meant by children and adolescents at risk and a brief overview of the factors that can put them at risk. Secondly, it will use a longitudinal study to show that these risk factors have been associated with future offending. Thirdly a definition will be given of interventions and how they can be a useful way to prevent risk factors leading to future offending. Fourthly a study will be discussed to show a possible relationship between mental illness in a parent relating to risk factors in the child. Fourthly exploring three different methods of intervention and demonstrate their effectiveness in reducing particular risk factors related to future offending, with a focus on child behavior. Lastly this essay will conclude that interventions can be a useful way to reduce risk factors and therefore help prevent future offending as a result.

Youth who were removed from their families are not only exposed to being separated from caregivers, but there also can be issues concerning physical and emotional trauma, as well as genetic factors that could alter a person’s mood and behavior (Rutter, 2000). Elevated behavioral issues amongst youth receiving residential care are extremely common and there are multiple studies that identify behavioral difficulties as a primary characteristic (James, Roesch, & Zhang, 2011). The behavioral concerns that this population presents with could hinder them from actually being placed, and interfere with successfully discharging from the group home. It should be noted that being of an older age group during admission into the foster care setting, and having history of juvenile delinquency and behavioral disturbances within the first couple of months of living in a residential setting, automatically correlates with unsuccessful discharges (Piotrkowski & Baker, 2004).

In addition, chronic drug abuse by teenagers during a time of development it is a particular concern because, it can interfere with normal socialization and cognitive development and thus frequently contributes to the development of mental disorders. Violence has become more prevalent among the diagnosed population of drugs and mental disorders. Domestic violence and suicide attempts are more common of the mentally ill who end up incarcerated; there is

The researchers advance the scientific knowledge base by adding to the current knowledge, contributed to the theory, and met the qualifications for a valuable research (Capella, 2016). According to Reising et al., (2016), the study was to address parental depression, social economic status (SES), and community disadvantage for internal and external issues in children and adolescents. Also, taking to account that parental negligence is also a factor that is connected to the internal and external problems in children and adolescents. In addition, concurring to the previous research (Fear, et al., 2009) (Flynn & Rudolph 2011), (Lewis, Collishaw, Thapar, & Gordon, 2014), (McCarthy, Downes, & & Sherman), & (Sondheimer, MD, 2010), all came into