The Influence Of Fostering On The Family

Foster care is one of the oldest social systems, its official implementation dating back to 1909, when the federal government officially suggested that foster homes were the best way to care for children, as opposed to the former system of orphanages and orphan trains. Foster care began as a voluntary way for parents to ensure their children could live a better life, but has since become a largely involuntary way to remove a child from a potentially dangerous situation (Rosenfield et al., 1997). Social workers predate this system, first appearing within the first Charity Organization as “friendly visitors” in 1877 (Segal, 2020). Social workers and foster care have long been intertwined, but social policy dictates much of what the foster care

Protecting the child and provide an opportunity in which they will live a close to normal life is the goal. But with so many children in foster care and so little workers, children can be over looked. How can a child live in foster care their whole life? “It has been long stated and strongly held belief that foster care must not be a way of life for children, but rather that it is intended as a short-term treatment measure which, for the children’s welfare, must eventuate in their return to their parents or in legal adoption” (Kline,1972,p.51). Children eventually need to be put into long term, permanent homes.

The following is a case study for Anamalia, Kokomalu and Eloni, a family that has been torn apart due to the aggressive nature of Eloni, who has physically abused his younger brother, has been suspended from school temporarily for attempting to stab a fellow classmate and is showing signs of substance abuse. Eloni has been placed in foster care and the family has been referred to counseling. During Eloni’s counseling sessions it was discovered that he was abused by his previous step-father and is showing signs of PTSD. Impact It has been shown that children that are placed in foster care or torn from their families experience a lack of trust for their parents.

Life skills should be taught to the children in preparation for the future. Foster care is meant to normalize the child’s life as much as possible and give help where it is needed. Although the intent of the foster care system is protecting neglected children, it may be causing

Advocates of foster care programs are declaring that the need for foster parents is greatly needed. In New Orleans alone there was a ten percent decrease in foster families. In addition, children needing to find a temporary home has increased. Some obstacles affect the outcome of this system, but not many people would guess that environment changes the situation drastically.

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.

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.

a. Foster parents can have an impact on the lives of a foster child by giving them a safe place to stay where they can feel loved and cared for. Foster parents can also provide the love and support that these children need especially if they came from an abused or neglected home. According to (Hasenecz, 2009) there have been several shocking stories about children being abused and neglected while in foster care or even worse reports of social workers who knew of the abuse and neglect and failed to report it or do anything about

This book raised awareness to authorities on the kind of treatment happening and proposed a change for foster institutions and homes to be monitored. The story began by Ms. Rita, Jennings’s mom, walking Jennings to an orphanage called Home of the Angels. My initial reactions after reading the first chapter was how a mother could just leave her kid with anybody. The book immediately gained my

Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by a change or end in a familiar pattern of behavior, “wrote John James and Russell Friedman in When Children Grieve.” Friedman says that just the phrase “foster child” implies several losses. The pervasive presence of ambiguous loss in foster children illustrates that many behavioral indicators of cognitive and emotional discomfort in foster children are normative (Lee and Whiting, 2007). For children in foster care, this type of loss tends to happen over and over again, and is incredibly hard to process, which is what this paper will focus

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.

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. Foster children are at risk of falling behind in development, and up to 80% of foster children have a developmental problem. Experiencing rejection and parental unavailability can cause, children develop behavioral patterns that have negative consequences for socio-emotional development.