We have all heard the stories on the news, seen them on our televisions, and possibly even known someone who has had to go through the process of Foster care. Sometimes this is a great thing for the child, but sometimes we unfortunately have to hear the tragic stories of children who inevitably fall through the cracks of the system. Sadly, the children who fall through often have the potential to be so much more than what their circumstances allow. The person they would develop into is stifled by where they came from. Foster care was designed to take children from a harmful environment and place them into one that will help them flourish for the time they are placed in a particular home. Foster care is supposed to be a safe haven for the children …show more content…
Many people that are looking in through a window do not understand this. Sadly, many more just don’t take the time to learn about it. What many do not consider is that the mental health of a child placed in foster care can be considerably altered. If you have ever watched a movie or read a book that portrayed a child in the foster care system you are aware that more often than not they are shown as the unruly, skip class, throw fits, failing school, runaway child. While there are a few truths to these stereotypes, it creates a stigma the child cannot run away from. Once someone finds out they are foster children they are often pegged as the problem child from the get-go. The act of being taken from the family a foster child is used to even though they are being harmed in some shape or fashion, can cause Reactive Attachment Disorder, also known as RAD. But it is totally the opposite. RAD causes the child to become withdrawn, sad, emotionless, and uninterested in human interaction or affection. It can cause severe depression, anxiety, and several other issues for the child …show more content…
To become a foster parent you have to go through many phases. The first step is to attend an informational meeting about being a foster parent. Before you can apply to be a foster parent you must be at least twenty-one. I believe that this age should be raised. I believe that this is one of the issues with the system is that we are allowing adults who are barely adults to become parents to children that need the utmost help and attention. The Parent/Parents must be able to provide a safe, secure, healthy, and financially stable home, before they are allowed to take in foster children. This is assessed through questionnaires, background checks, and home visits. Appallingly, drug screening is not a part of this process. This is how children get placed in homes where there is substance abuse. It is detrimental to the children when we don’t test for drugs in the home where they are getting placed, seeing as most of them are coming from homes where substance abuse is a problem. Luckily they do screen for sexual and violent convictions, complaints, and arrests. So at least they do what they can to make sure the child will not be further abused in those ways. In addition to the background checks and home visits, Parents looking to foster must complete at least thirty hours of pre-service preparation training and
To be loved, to be praised, to be cherished; three things that every child in the world wishes for. It is a parent 's job to grant their children with these needs. However, some children are not as lucky as others and are not blessed with the caring parents that they deserve. Luckily, the foster care system is there to help. The foster care system helps provide safety and care for children whose families are unable to do so.
There are many flaws that come with the intrusion of these services. Many families across the country have been torn apart for one reason or another due to circumstances. The homes these children are placed in are oftentimes just as bad, or even worse than the ones they were taken from. Many children within the foster care system suffer from sexually, mentally, and physically abusive families that do as much, if not more harm, than the ones they had previously came from.
The foster care system shatters like broken glass and there is no repair for broken glass. Permanent damage can only be fixed with drastic solutions, redesigning the system is the method to follow. Foster parents go through hardships and trials while trying to adopt children. Children need stability and the parents willing to give them that they cannot be with forever. A reason for a shattered system is the result of a shattered admissions process.
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.
Have you ever thought about how it feels to be ripped out of the only place that you know as home? To get no explanation of why your parents just did not want you anymore? Not a lot of people think about this. Usually, the only people that do think about this is children that are experiencing or have experienced this problem. The children’s rights website stated that, “On any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States.”
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.
600,000 children in the US go through the foster system each year. Those are children who were neglected, abused, or orphaned. The foster care system still has its flaws and many children do fall through the cracks. The number of children in the foster care system could continue to increase if abortion in made illegal in the
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
Sadly, they usually are more unfortunate than lucky. Treating foster kids poorly and placing them in bad homes just to get your job done is not okay. The foster care system is failing kids badly, because they are more emotional, scared, and most have developmental issues because of what they have been through. According to many authors the statement about foster care systems failing is true.
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.
Like I said before, foster care is the temporary placement of a child in a new home. To be a foster parent, you have to go through a lot of training. If you are ten years or older, you have to get a background check. They do this so they can figure out what kind of person you have been and if you are fit to be a foster parent. In your background check, you should include a criminal history search, information contained by a health care provider, information about your credentials, information maintained showing that you have never neglected or abused a child, information regarding any denial to the person of a license, and information to see if the person is guilty of committing a sex offense or serious crime.
Children in foster care often have a high risk of having developmental problems. Seeing that most children in foster care were, taken away from unfit parents a lot of these children have faced some, type of maltreatment. "Proponents of foster care note that 70– 80% of children in out of home placements have been maltreated in the home of origin..."(Lawrence 58). Because, maltreatment is common before placement, poor development outcomes are a risk. Consequently, foster children are at risk of falling behind in development, and up to 80% of foster children have a developmental problem.(Hodges 2156).
According to a Child Protective Investigation, there are approximately half a million children in the U.S. foster care system, otherwise known as congregate care (group homes and institutions). Children are placed in congregate care when they are found to be in an unsafe environment. Usually children of abuse or maltreatment are placed first (Font, 2015). Out-of-home-care causes increased problems of attachment, behavioral, and psychological disorders in the developing child. Child safety is the primary goal of out-of-home-care; however, maltreatment investigations are still reported in those institutions.
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.