Foster Care Placement Specialist Career Essay

The standard says “Social workers in child welfare shall actively engage older youths in addressing their needs while in out-of-home care and as they prepare to transition out of foster care” (NASW, 2013, p. 22). Meaning that there is great preparation done with the child who is exiting the foster care, planning for their new future as well as focusing on basic life skills that are necessary as an adult. It is the child’s social worker who ensures that there is a plan in place and the child has the skills to live on their own.

In this chapter, we learn about children in family foster care. The intent of foster care is to offer children care within a family environment when their homes are temporally unable to do so. Foster care is meant to provide the following; temporary emergency care of a child, relief for a parent when he or she cannot manage stress, time for parent to solve problem, a different home experience or protection for a child, care unit institutional treatment is available, and care until release for adoption is approved. There are also different types of foster homes for different situations. The role of a foster parent can be very stressful; they never know what to expect for example supervised meeting for the birth parents, school attended meetings

I did know that although children are taken out of abusive homes, that the foster care is flawed and children can be/ are emotionally abused and damaged. However, I did not know that the number one reason that children are put into foster care is poverty. It definitely makes sense, poverty is huge here in America. Teenagers get pregnant and put their children up in the foster care system, people have children and lose jobs. Social workers play a huge role in foster care and child abuse. Now the problem is can social workers solve the issue of children being mentally damaged and abused in foster care. Social workers do sit down and try to take a child from a dysfunctional environment and put them into (what is supposed to be a structured) environment, but does this work for every child? Clearly not because of how many foster care children are getting pregnant, running away from their foster parent, getting arrested. It just is not working. Now finding a set answer to solve the issues that foster children face would be a

I am employed as an on-going social worker by the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF). DCF is a child protection agency, which is responsible for protecting children from abuse and neglect and strengthening families. The Department has offices throughout the Commonwealth; I am located at the New Bedford area office. As an on-going social worker I am assigned families after a report of abuse or neglect has been reported, investigated and supported. It is the on-going social worker’s responsibility to provide professional child welfare social work services, through home visits, to the family. This is done by assessing the family’s strengths and needs, developing

Studies have shown that thirty percent of children in foster care remain in care for more than two years. The longer children stay in care the more placements they are likely to experience. More than half the children who enter the foster care system will be moved to a different home in their first six months. It is also found that children care for more than two years will experience about three different placements. Nearly all of the moves have nothing to do with bettering the well being of the child. Many of the placements are done to carry out the systems policies and other placements are done if foster parents don’t meet the child needs. Children are less likely to be moved many times if a foster family is prepared to meet the child 's challenging needs. The foster care system is also in need of more social workers that will ensure that the child is placed in a good family so that they are not moved several times. Plenty of placements are also done if the child is initially placed in short-term care but needs to be moved to long term. However, the more changes a child experiences decreases the chance of them returning home or being adopted. There are many children that are stuck in the foster care system because they do not have a biological family or an adoptive

Common misconceptions associated with being in foster care portray youth in the system as orphans. Youth in foster care are supposedly delinquents, and will perform poorly in academics compared to their peers who are not placed in these institutions. In society, these stereotypes are often pretended, but very little people understand the circumstances and factors the youth in the foster care system are facing. Youth in care are often juxtaposed to their community counterparts, to signify the impact of being a ward of the state, rather than being with a family member. However, youth who have experienced care, have faced harsher realities. According to fosterclub, foster youth are 5x more likely to develop a mental disorder, 25x more likely

Foster care is a complex topic. Most people do not fully understand what foster care is. David Pelzer, a foster child and author, says that he is always grateful to “The System,” which a myriad in society criticize (Pelzer 305). “Children aged birth to twenty-one may need foster care for just a few days, or may be in placement for longer than a year” (www.fostercare.com). Education should be brought to the public about foster care, what it is like, and how to help.

The quality MSW program offered at Our Lady of the Lake will enable me to conduct research into, and increase my understanding of the diversity this program entails. I know that my adaptive personality will help me to form lasting connections to further build my professional goals. I believe that I my passion, drive, having an open mind and willingness to learn will grant me success as a Social Worker. I am determined to do all that I can to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Work and commit myself to improving the social and personal experiences of family’s, geriatrics, and children. After receiving my degree, I want to find a career in Child Welfare, while also servicing the geriatric

This solution will require the government to provide more funding for the foster system to hire more social workers. This will allow the cases to be more individualized for each child. Marion Becker, Neil Jordan, and Rebecca Larsen (2006) state,

Our foster care system was developed in the 19 century, and it all started with Charles Loring Brace taking in homeless children. The system has come a long way since it started by passing laws, such as the child abuse prevention and treatment act, that protect children, and among another things, however, it still has problems. Some of the major issues they have are children placements, preparing them for adulthood, the rules and regulations with the foster parents, and drug abuse among teens in foster care.

The increase in youth entering foster care and the poor outcomes of young adults exiting the foster care system continues to be a rising dilemma in America. This qualitative study will examine how Youth and Family Services Division Child Protective Services engage foster youth in early independent living programs and how mentors can help support the goal of youth adult’s transition plan that aids them to become self-sufficient once they exit foster care. Youth and Family Services protect the well-being needs of children who are at risk and provide services to families by increasing their capability to become self-supporting (Youth and Family Services Division, 2015). According to Schleicher (2012), recommended that there is a need to examine

Children in foster care have been legally removed from their birth families and placed under the care and control of state-run child welfare agencies. Every year, almost 30,000 kids age out of the foster care system after childhoods when many moves from house to house and school to school (NPR). For most foster kids, as soon as they turn 18, they're cut off from a place to live and financial support. They're suddenly on their own, suddenly responsible to find housing, money, clothing, and food; while trying to continue their education, and in most cases, they give up pursuing the latter path. While other kids their age are still getting help from a parent or guardian. As a result, these adolescents experience psychological trauma, financial instability, which both combined to yield a vicious cycle of foster care.

According to M. V. Chapman, author of ¨Attitudes Toward Out-of-Home Care Over 18 Months: Changing Perceptions of Youths in Foster Care¨, one-fifth of children in these programs become homeless at least once in their adulthood (3). When children age out at eighteen, these young adults have nearly no support, nobody to turn to, nowhere to go, often leaving them homeless and alone. This statistic shows that young adults are often left without a home they can call their own because foster care programs´ rules and regulations. Frank Ainsworth and Patricia Hanson claim that during the placement precess, one in every five children moved six to ten times and every one in seven were relocated more than ten times during their stay in care (88). They also acknowledge that children who move twenty times or more while being in care is far too common (90). Within each move comes a challenging, new lifestyle that puts each child's present and future at

Social work is a career that I have recently become interested in pursuing. I spent many years with misconceptions concerning the sector. However, following three years of working close by these experts, I have picked up a more profound comprehension of the significance of the work.I am especially interested in working in child welfare along with terminally ill children. I have got to a stage in my career where I have started to search out instruction that will make me more efficient in creating plans and providing services for vulnerable people. I am confident that the skills that I will gain from completing a social work master’s degree will help me collaborate with people in need and aid sustainable growth in their lives.

Sharon has developed an understanding of foster children and foster care through her experience in the Human Service field. She understands that foster children will have experiences that she may have never experienced. She has identified that foster children will need time and will have difficulty adjusting to the home. Sharon believes that as a parent she is very patient and understanding individual. She states that as a parent communication is important. Sharon believes that active listening and keeping an open line of communication are both key in parenting children.