Health and well-being of children in foster care placement (original) (raw)
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Her name is Jazzy. She is a beautiful 17-year-old with shiny brown hair and big brown eyes. Her contagious laughter is complemented by the deep dimples on her cheeks. She loves to cheer for the football team at her high school and go to the movies with her friends on the weekends. What many people do not know about Jazzy is that her biological mother was a prostitute. Jazzy was conceived while her mother was with one of her "clients." Soon after Jazzy's birth, her mother was arrested and taken to prison for her crimes as a prostitute. Jazzy was left to live with her half siblings and the man whom she shared a last name with because her mother had no idea who her real father was. Jazzy does not like to talk about the things that happened in that home. She gets flashbacks every once in a while of the horrors of living there, but for the most part she has tried to forget. The only thing she allows herself to remember is the time she spent with her siblings. They were there for each other. But when the police discovered that Jazzy's step-father was not a suitable caretaker for her or the other children, they took the children away from him and into the foster care system. Is the foster care system the best solution for children like these? Does the system improve the lives of these children or does it complicate and destroy their lives even further? By exploring what the foster care system is, identifying problems within the system, examining solutions that have been attempted in the past, and establishing how the problems need to be addressed now, this essay will demonstrate that the foster care system has many areas in need of improvement in regards to its treatment of children and effectiveness with finding permanent homes and bettering the lives of not just children, but family units as a whole.
Health Care Needs of Children in the Foster Care System
Pediatrics, 2000
Nearly 750 000 children are currently in foster care in the United States. Recent trends in foster care include reliance on extended family members to care for children in kinship care placements, increased efforts to reduce the length of placement, acceleration of termination of parental rights proceedings, and emphasis on adoption. It is not clear what impact welfare reform may have on the number of children who may require foster care placement. Although most children enter foster care with medical, mental health, or developmental problems, many do not receive adequate or appropriate care while in placement. Psychological and emotional problems, in particular, may worsen rather than improve. Multiple barriers to adequate health care for this population exist. Health care practitioners can help to improve the health and well-being of children in foster care by performing timely and thorough admission evaluations, providing continuity of care, and playing an active advocacy role. P...
Rethinking Foster Care: Why Our Current Approach to Child Welfare Has Failed
SMU Law Review Forum, 2020
Over the past decade, the child welfare system has expanded, with vast public and private resources being spent on the system. Despite this investment, there is scant evidence suggesting a meaningful return on investment. This Article argues that without a change in the values held by the system, increased funding will not address the public health problems of child abuse and neglect.
Care of the foster child: a primer for the pediatrician
Advances in pediatrics, 2011
oster care was designed to provide temporary, nurturing environments to children while their caregivers (usually birth parents) receive services to help them facilitate eventual reunification. The number of children in foster care in the United States has been steadily increasing in the past 2 decades with more than 500,000 children in care on any given day [1-3]. However, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), there has been a gradual decline in numbers since fiscal year (FY) 2007. In AFCARS Report #17, an estimated 424,000 children were in foster care in the United States on September 30, 2009. Since 2007, the number of foster children exiting the system has been greater than those entering. Overall, the number of children in foster care has declined to its lowest level since 2002, and the number of adoptions has increased to its highest level [1,4]. The recent trend has been to (1) attempt to keep children with their birth families while providing family preservation services, (2) push for more timely reunification of families, and (3) commence concurrent planning early with the aim of expediting termination of parental rights and permanency preparation in cases where reunification is not possible [5,6]. Despite this progress, there still are a large number of children in foster care who require quality health care assessments, treatment, and close monitoring.
Foster care: Core problems and intervention strategies
Children and Youth Services Review, 1981
Despite consensus that the foster care system can improve service delivery to the children entrusted to it, there is less agreement on appropriate targets for change and intervention strategies. It is argued that one of two formulations of the core problem expressed by the client group receiving foster care services are implicit in the remaining three core problems identified as targets for change in the literature. Consequences of the implicit selection of either formulation and related strategies is presented. The author wishes to express appreciation for their helpful comments on-earlier drafts of this article to the following colleagues: Alfred Kadushin, Sharon Berlin, Lynn Wikler and students: Linda Moore, and Joan Dobrof. The journal reviewers were exceptionally helpful in aiding me to develop more fully the ideas in the article. 53706.
Mental Health Services for Children Placed in Foster Care: An Overview of Current Challenges
Child Welfare, 2009
Material submitted should extend knowledge in any child/family welfare or related service; on any aspect of administration, supervision, casework, group work, community organization, teaching, research, or interpretation; on any facet of interdisciplinary approaches to the field; or on issues of social policy that bear on the welfare of children and their families. Articles should be 3,500 to 5,000 words in length, including artwork and references. Submit only an electronic version of the article through our online submissions process at http://www.cwla.org/articles/cw/ submissions.htm. An abstract of approximately 75 words should preface the article. All references should be documented according to APA style (4th ed.). Publication of an article does not imply endorsement of the author's opinions; differences of opinion are welcome. Child Welfare welcomes letters from its readers. Letters must be typed, signed, and include the writer's address and daytime phone number. Authors of articles are offered the opportunity to rebut letters concerning their work. Back issues, single copies, and reprints: Single copies and volumes of Child Welfare may be obtained from Child Welfare League of America, PO Box 345, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-9834. For volumes in microfilm, write ProQuest, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Copies of individual articles may be obtained from their authors, whose addresses are provided at the beginning of each article. Missing issues: Claims for missing issues of Child Welfare must be made within 12 months of publication, or the cover price, plus postage, will be charged to replace the issue.