Mental Health Issues In Foster Care

“Family is forever.” Many people believe that this quote happens to be true. Everyone wants to believe that their family will always be there for them, and support the decisions that they make. For a normal family is quote would be accurate. On the other hand, there are families that will not be together forever. This is not just a choice that these certain families make, it is forced upon them. At this very moment hundreds of thousands of children around the country are spending quality time with their family. But, at the same exact moment, there are over five hundred thousand children living in the foster care system. These children do not know what it is like to spend quality time with their actual families. Instead, these children are forced to live with complete strangers, and suffer. Government officials say that foster care is for the safety of the children, but many do not share the same views. Foster care does not benefit children because of extensive developmental, social, and economic problems later in their lives.

In today’s society Fostering Children has become a form of employment, and too many Foster Parents consider fostering to be nothing more than just a job. Agencies are considering the hiring process as an urgency to match staff with cliental; considering families as just another case to fill their homes and keep their agencies up and running instead of taking time to match families according to the needs of the children and qualifications of the foster parents.

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.

America has a staggering problem among its youths and is in desperate need of help. Every day, young, innocent children are being abused. Unfortunately, this rate only seems to be growing as the foster care system is becoming flooded with children who need help. According to the website, Foster Club, a child is entered into the foster care system every two minutes. The reasoning for a child being placed in foster care can range, but mostly it is because of abuse. These traumatizing experiences and memories can hinder a person for the rest of their life. These kids find themselves in a terrible situation and learn ways to cope with the pain. It can be easy to judge their behaviors but for somebody with a normal life we can never understand the trials that they have had to live through. Fortunately, the psychological damage that is done can be reversed but in order to understand this fully we first need to know the negative psychological affects abuse can have on a person.

The Association Between Foster Care and Substance Abuse Risk Factors and Treatment Outcomes: An Exploratory Secondary Analysis

Foster children struggle immensely within healthcare and the foster care system. They are not receiving the correct support to help them when they go out into the real world.Within foster care, children and teens can either go into a foster home or a group home. Group homes can prevent permanent and authentic connections, while in foster homes, adolescents experience abuse and they are aware that there is no long term stability. For fifteen years, Betsy Krebs has worked with teens in the foster care

In America it is stated that 1 in every 84 children live in foster care circumstances via "Statistics on Foster Care". There is a numerous amount of contrasting children from various backgrounds and ages living within these special housing homes, and many are repeatedly in and out from unstable circumstances. As children grow and mature into the new faces of the world, they face many obstacles and tribulations that will alter their lives. Living in fostering homes is a substantial example and the effects of living in these institutions can truly be great.

For many years, foster care has been a difficult subject throughout our society. When the idea of foster care comes to mind, many immediately think of screaming children, distressed parenting and uphill battles. Before foster care existed in the United States, orphaned children were sent to orphanages. While these institutions were often the best option available to children with nowhere else to go, they often lacked the necessary staff, structure and resources to adequately care for all of the children in need. As a result, some orphanages were overcrowded, and children lived in poor conditions. Some children even died due to the lack of sufficient care (Adoptions, 2017). In order to give children better living situations, the United

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.

Over 600,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system. Reasons include, abuse, neglect and abandonment. These children lack nurturing environments and stable homes. Children within the foster care system have more mental, physical and developmental problems. It is imperative to understand the challenges children entering the foster care system are exposed to. The system works best when children are provided nurturing, and short-term care until they can be placed back home safely or a permanent adoptive family. For many children, however, the stay is longer, with 30% remaining in temporary care for over two years. Staying in the system is detrimental to the child’s well-being. The foster care system is an unsuccessful intervention for children that cultivates development, health and mental issues.

The health of children entering the foster system is very important, but not always stressed. When entering the foster care system some children enter with health issues, such as developmental and psychiatric disorders (All Foster par. 3). There could be many reasons why they enter with these health issues. One could be due to the abuse and neglect many children encounter while with biological parents (par. 3). While in the care of foster parents, the health of foster children can be neglected as well (par. 4). “Younger foster children do not receive adequate preventive health care while in placement, many significant problems go undetected, or, when diagnosed are not evaluated and treated,” stated U.S. General Accounting Office (par. 5). (The U.S. General Accounting Office is an investigative arm for the U.S. Congress.) This is a problem and can result in death while a child is in care. Between 2000 and 2007, about thirty foster children died while in the care of foster parents,

Everywhere across the world, more and more children are being placed into foster care or a welfare type system. Foster care can benefit children or harm them; the effects of foster care differ for every individual. These types of systems often have a major effect on young children’s physiological state. Children entering in foster care are often malnourished and have untreated health problems. A high percentage of children who are placed in these types of systems have mental health, physical health, and/or developmental issue which often originates while the individuals are still in the custody of the biological parents. Children in foster care should be provided with a healthy and nurturing environment which often provides positive long term results. The age of children in a foster care varies across the world, but it is often seen that majority of these children are young (George para. 1). There are more young children in the system because younger children require more adequate care than older children that are already in the system. Placing these children in welfare systems is supposed to be a healing process for them. Although this is supposed to be a healing process, statistics say these children have a negative experience while being in these systems, but this is not always the case. A number of children in foster care fall sucker to continuous neglect and recurrent abuse with the lack of nurturing and an unstable environment. These same children often have unmet

The numbers of children in foster care continue to increase annually with minimal attempts to intercept the causes of the escalation. Children are generally placed into foster care as a result of parental abuse or neglect; however, there are many racial inconsistencies circulating general foster care involvement. In the year of 2014, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System reported a total of 415,129 children in the foster care system. Depending on their situation, children in the system are in need of some sort of home, whether that be temporary or permanent. When experiencing this type of shift in their lives, many children tend to act out. Foster care in the United States is a

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