State agencies responsible for the caretaking of our most vulnerable children struggle with a multitude of problems, mostly systemic. Staffing, training, turf issues, paranoia, allegations of cronyism and secrecy, all cast dark shadows on the capacities of the government run organizations to effectively care for neglected and abandoned children removed from the care of their biological caretakers.
As in any profession, there are dedicated professionals who years later are visited by the young women and men who they represented and followed through the years in foster care, return home permanency planning, and failed adoptions.
Philosophy of Child Welfare Agencies:
I would argue that there are systemic flaws in the way we have developed child welfare, in that involvement of the state as the long-term parent has fostered a serious dependency among our foster children to the point that they are unable to successfully integrate within society.
The constant multi-parenting that occurs at every level from where they live and for how long - to whom they speak to or socialize with is an abnormal level of authoritarian parenting that leaves the child helpless, confused, angry, hyperactive, depressed, anxious, and seeking quick and easy ways to escape from their lives. Developing independent living skills should not start when foster youth start aging out of the system as we call it – rather, developing independent living skills should start from the TIME the child enters the foster home.
This would mean giving the child chances to make friendship choices, developing problem solving skills, being able to have sleepovers, and being able to visit friends and do homework and study sessions other than at their foster home. We cannot make our kids feel like they are locked up in a jail with internal bars and hope for successful outcomes in adult lives.
Foster parents are often left out of therapy sessions and are told these are private sessions. However, in the spirit of HIPPA Compliance, there is a significant loss in the translation from therapy to foster home. Unless foster parents are properly educated regarding their child’s issues, they or any other parent would be ineffective in supporting the therapeutic goals. I suggest that therapists engage foster parents as co-therapists in the treatment of the child to help stabilize the child in their home and empower foster parents to be a part of the healing process.
Another suggestion along the same lines is that family counseling for foster families should be regularly required to alert families to potential conflicts, unseen issues, and address sibling/foster children issues amongst others.
Lack of focus on Prevention:
The adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” comes to mind while writing about the importance of preventative care.
Yet, children who appear to be doing just fine in early childhood, seemingly change and become uncontrollable adolescents. The problem is in a large part because unsuspecting foster/adoptive parents are not taught the reality of the impact of trauma and the kinds of behaviors that the children show.
After reading some of the state manuals for foster parents, I embarked on sharing the real world of foster parents and foster parenting a wrote, “Foster Parenting Step-by Step: How to Nurture the Traumatized Child and Resolve Conflict.”
Unless we educate our foster parents and provide in-depth and honest training from the point of signing up to the point of assisting in grief work with foster parents and children so that they do not cease being foster parents, we will continue to have higher than usual unstable foster homes, multiple changes in placements, poorly adjusted young adults and very importantly, loss of potentially excellent foster families.
When children are suddenly removed from foster families, many wonderfully dedicated foster parents go through tremendous grief and have no desire to re-experience that loss.
We lose good foster homes and are left with some of those that make front page news
Inaccurate Diagnoses and Ineffective Treatments:
In the interest of saving and cutting costs, foster children are given substandard care with regard to being in counseling with Bachelor’s level “clinicians” and students that provide in-home counseling, charge for a therapy hour while driving kids back and forth from visitations, and have little or no training in evidence based and other successful techniques in treating traumatized children and youth. Often, children are diagnosed with ADHD or Bipolar Disorder for example and are on at least 4 or more psychotropic medications.
Weight gain further worsens an already dismal self-esteem.
And, we wonder why our kids are so easily led by a stranger who promises them the world and then trafficks our children. Cutting costs so that the children do not have access to highly qualified trauma therapists and academic and trauma-informed psychological evaluations that identify specific areas of need, strength, and weaknesses is deeply egregious. The investment in correct diagnosis helps in treatment planning, level of care, need for specialized care, medication needs if any, and the type of treatment that is required. Investment in intensive trauma treatment instead of “talk therapy” about their day to day lives would be significant in changing outcomes for our foster children. Recommendations about intellectual abilities, academic skills and deficits, social skills, levels of trauma, type and severity of trauma, and resilience factors are essential aspects of psychological evaluations that provide guidance to counselors, teachers, case managers and most importantly foster parents.
Lack of Oversight of Foster homes/Institutions:
Due to high caseloads, irresponsibility, lack of professional supervision, lack of accountability, foster homes that are abusive remain long term placements for years, until a former foster child speaks out and investigative efforts then reveal the enormity of the abuse. Frequent stories of our former foster children being beaten, raped and abused in multiple ways have been published online, written on social media and testimony in Congress and in the courtrooms across the country. Institutional care has risks involving inadequately trained or antisocial personalities that abuse our children where they have been charged with protecting our children. I suggest that Risk Assessments should be done every single time case managers visit the homes and institutions needs to be closely video-monitored to ensure compliance.
Retroactive Intervention:
Another systemic issue in foster care is the tendency to refer for services once a child performs an act that causes concern.
What has been done, can be undone albeit with difficulty, whether it is sexual acting out in school, or failing grades. But, the case record follows the child into the subsequent foster home placements.
Lack of Families/Screening Deficits:
Every job requires a job interview or screening depending on the job description. Screening of families suffers when there is a desperate need for foster families to place children.
That appears to be outweighing the stringent screening procedures that foster parents should be going through to prevent hiring of potential pedophiles, narcissistic and antisocial/severely mentally ill adults who apply and are able to pass the basic qualifications. Underfunding and lack of oversight again lead to greater failures in foster parenting.
Unreasonable Caseloads:
The suggested ratio is 15:1 but more often than not, the caseloads are as many as 25 -30 families to one case worker/manager. ncreased caseloads lead to increased margins of error.
Zealous Representation:
Newly graduated social workers, counselors and others can take situations in foster homes out of context and over react. I had a case (story changed) where foster parents who were handling highly traumatized young siblings were visited by their new college graduate case manager who was concerned about the messiness during one visit and felt the house was not adequate.
The children were instantly removed after having lived there for several years. Subsequently, one of the siblings changed foster homes five times in that very year and was finally returned, while the sibling was institutionalized.
These are just some of the suggestions I have, after working with foster families for all these years.
There is so much that needs to be changed, but unless we change the ways we view foster care in America, our children will continue to grow with high risk for negative life outcomes.
I welcome a Q and A on this topic and readers’ responses.
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski