Neglecting Mental Health In The Foster Systems Foster care was put into effect to help children out of dangerous situations. The main goal of foster care was only meant to be a temporary placement for children. This allows the parents to receive the help they need to make their home an ideal environment for the child or children. The foster system fails to provide adequate support for children in its care. If the foster system could recognize the issues it faces, perhaps it would be able to operate more efficiently. Perhaps one solution to this problem is to provide a transitioning program and offer counseling sessions to better support mental health and emotional stability. To better help these foster children, they need to feel supported …show more content…
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,
“Children in foster care also cost the Medicaid program a significantly higher amount for behavioral health services than non-foster care children. Medicaid-reimbursed behavioral health providers received an average of $210 per person per month for foster care children, compared to an average reimbursement of $26 per child per month for non-foster care children.” (p.639).
Perhaps providing the funding for these services at an earlier age will help to prevent the needs or other services for these children when they become adults. This may help reduce the number of adults who grew up in foster care, end up in jail or on the streets because they were unable to become healthy, functioning adults to lack of support from the foster
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Joseph A. Doyle Jr. (2007) discusses, “Children investigated for abuse or neglect are not tracked over time in a systematic way.” (p.1584). If the foster system does not efficiently track the wellbeing of these children, it makes it difficult to provide all the necessary support for them. Providing a program that will help track, transition, and counsel these children will greatly impact the overall improvement of the foster system.
Foster care was not meant to be a permanent solution for these children. It was not developed to traumatize or negatively impact the outcome for the children place in the system. Creating more individualized care and better systematic tracking of these children will help provide better emotional and mental support. If this is implemented then it will greatly increase the chances of a system that was created to help, become more
Obtaining some form of education such as a high school diploma is required to attain employment. As a result employment is not standard among youth in foster care whereas, adolescents who are not in foster care are mostly likely to be regularly employed. In addition to employment and education, behavior and emotional problems are prevalent and those youth who live with foster
To inaugurate, the biggest issue with foster care is the inadequate placement of children in the system. Children are placed into homes based on cases of availability and not what their unique needs call for. Patricia George states,
The article states there are many holes for the child trying to receive those proper services at that age for example, healthcare, extending their education, employment, and housing. Mental illness is a common aspect in a foster child’s life, coping with this will require the correct attention needed. Getz uses a quote of "Children falling through the cracks" this clearly explains the issue and areas were the Department of Public Welfare is lacking on.
The low expectations placed on foster kids leads to lower graduation rates for those aging out of custody because most foster children do not have a supportive adult to keep them in line when they get tired of school. The lack of stability already puts foster kids at a disadvantage and leaves gaps in learning and development that are omnipresent in their lives. The instability that marked Pelzer’s teenage years made it difficult for him to continuously readjust, and he felt that every time he adjusted to a new environment, “something happened” (Pelzer
Foster Care System Downfalls: The foster care system is setup to provide needs and protect children who have been neglected or abused. The main goal of the system is to take the children out of dangerous homes, and relocate them to a safe home, and to hopefully reunite the children with their biological families. While they are in foster care, their life should be greatly improved. Help should be given to those who are struggling with mental and emotional disabilities.
The foster care systems has and will always be a part of society. The idea of a foster care system has always been around, even if it was not properly attained in the past. There has also been other methods to try to find placement for children with no or bad homes, for example the orphanage train, living with widows or living house to house in a community. Now in today’s time, we have an organized system of foster care with two different types of homes for children. For example we have group homes, which is a care facility that houses six or more children at a time.
() All of those children have to be reminded daily that the foster care system has a lot of problems in it. Most of these children are put in some of the most unbearable situations. The foster system has numerous problems that I think can and should be solved. This includes: children not having an education, foster parents and children not having a connection, children facing both sexual and physical abuse, financial problems, and children aging out of the system. There are many more problems with the foster care system but I think that these are the main problems that should be addressed and solved.
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.
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.
Foster care is unfavorable to American society, because “according to national statistic 40 to 50 percent of those children will never complete high school. Sixty-six percent
Foster care homes are places where children and teens
I am a first-generation college student who aged out of the foster care system. My formative experiences in foster care led me the profession of social work. I earned a BSW (San José State University) and MSW (University of Michigan) with a specialization in social policy and evaluation in the practice area of children and youth in families. During my second year of my MSW studies, I was invited to speak at the White House bill-signing ceremony of the Foster Care Independence Act (FCIA), based on my advocacy work to reform the foster care system. This invitation led to an MSW field practicum at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where I worked on the implementation of the FCIA.
Neglect is a harsh thing to go through when you have no one on your side especially by the people that are supposed to help you find a loving and caring family. Foster Care workers aren’t caring and looking out for the children like they are supposed to so that’s where the neglect comes from and that’s why this paper is getting written. Are kids in foster care in the United States safe?. The Foster Care System in the United States is neglectful and unsafe for children because foster care workers aren’t screened correctly, the system is not monitored appropriately, foster care can negatively affect the mind of a child.
The most common psychological problems developed by these children are ADHD, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and bipolar disorder. Many children suffer from attachment disorders from their foster families when taken in at a young age. Removing children from their home has proved to be traumatic to the psychological development of the child, thus creating a tough decision for child protective services when children cannot be taken in by family members (Lohr & Jones, 2016). Researchers have found that children who are in foster homes or congregate homes are more likely to be put on psychiatric medications including antianxiety, antipsychotics, stimulants, and
Literature Review Throughout the years, research has been conducted on the effects that foster care can have on children. In the United States alone, there are roughly 670,000 children who have spent time in the foster care system each year (“Foster Care,” 2017). Of those children, approximately 33% of them age out of foster care system. Studies then show that the foster care system has had varying effects on the children who are/have been a part of it. In many cases, studies have noted the effects of attachment for children in foster care.