Advocacy
Within my interviews, parents who are involved with foster care believe that one of the largest systemic hurdles to overcome is the burden of a negative stigma. They often felt discouraged to take their children out in public in fear of shame for their lack of “parenting” or for the behaviors that their children may exhibit. For this group it is frustrating that people cannot see through the behavior, to the trauma or other experiences that has impacted their child’s lives. Since this is such a large issue, I decided that an “end the stigma campaign” would be a wonderful way to combat the stigma of behavior and advocate for children and families working within the foster care system. A campaign in conjunction with trauma education which is described in the Servant Leadership section may help students and families feel more welcome to share their experiences. It is noted that when most students initially move schools, they describe their experience as positive because the knowledge of their foster care status becomes concealed again. They believe it is better to keep this a secret because of the social stigma that comes with being a student in foster care (Fawley-King et al., 2017).
The pictures above represents a similar campaign that I happened to find through Facebook, of a friend who had shared it. The goal from this photographer was to allow foster care and adoptive families to address stigmas that they have dealt with in their experiences. The one above was one of my favorites. I love that it understands the humanity and dignity of each child by helping us remember that they are more than their behavior. This type of education allows communities, schools, and parents understand the complex needs of families in foster care or with adopted children. According to Puig (2013):
The foster care system is founded on the belief that families are both flexible and resilient; they can be created and recreated. Professionals must recognize foster care families as true families and invest in them in ways that respond to their complexities and diverse needs. (p. 1638)
I believe that this type of campaign would help not only professionals understand the complexities of a family involved with foster care but will also educate the general public. It will help others understand that these families and students have important things to say and important needs to be met.
If I were to form a campaign like this in a school or to educate an entire community, I would work to bring awareness to a larger scope of stigmas surrounding children and their education or well-being. I would work with families to identify stigmas that they constantly face and create a question and response picture like the ones that are seen above. It would also be helpful to include a written explanation in order to make sure the campaign serves its intended purpose. These pictures and explanations could be posted around the school to help all students understand the humanity of each individual being. This way persons in foster care do not feel singled out but can feel represented in a variety of other stigmas that need to be addressed.
Check out the photo campaign I found at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/angryfostermama/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2213022915669153&ref=page_internal
Or check out the Angry Foster Mama’s blog: https://www.angryfostermama.com/blog
References
Rush-Miller, L. (2019). Ending Misconceptions [Online Image]. Retrieved November 13, 2019 from https://www.facebook.com/pg/angryfostermama/photos/?tab=album&album_id= 2213022915669153&ref=page_internal
Other Resources
Unwanted Film Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV9xZW3ghP4
Servant Leadership
Through the literature and my interviews, it was clear that caretakers of children in foster care believe that a positive step forward for the foster care community is trauma informed education. It was discussed many times that anyone working with foster youth should have a considerable amount of trauma informed education to protect themselves from secondary trauma and to care for the foster youth who have usually experienced some sort of trauma in their life. One of my interviewees, who works in a short-term respite home for children in foster care, noted that training for trauma should be similar to first responders such as police, medics, and firefighters. This is because foster caregivers are also many times in constant crisis mode and must be willing to deal with one or multiple children in this crisis mode at any point. All of my interviews insisted that trauma education be more prevalent for foster care parents and in schools where teachers and other school staff can be best equipped to help students. I would like to think as a counselor this is something that could be created in any community.
None of the foster care parents I interviewed felt prepared for the experiences that they encountered with their children from the foster care system. Although all of them had basic training, they wished they had more education after accepting their first child. I specifically noted that they wished for continuous education on “practical skills” that they could use with their foster children and that they would have appreciated some mentoring services and continued education throughout their time as a primary caregiver. I think that this is a perfect opportunity for schools to be involved with the foster community without isolating the population. All families, with large or small amounts of trauma, can benefit from trauma informed education and it can be useful to all families. One company like Echo is a great source for parents in the community to start with before or in place of a community wide education event. This site has parenting classes on resiliency and skills that relate to trauma. Depending on the resources available this could be an easy way to start working with servant leadership until more quality education is provided to the community for parents.
Lastly, trauma informed education should also be provided in schools for staff and administrators to effectively help students with trauma and in particular, students in foster care. According to Berardi and Morton (2017), 50% of students with IEP’s have them for emotional or behavioral issues (p.10). This shows the need for trauma informed care in order to make students in foster care feel more supported and give them more opportunities to succeed. Teachers and other school workers need to be aware of the prevalence of PTSD in students in foster care by understanding possible triggers and reducing stimulating experiences if necessary. Lack of trauma informed care can also increase cynicism in children in foster care because they have learned that their caregivers can not provide the safety that they should, which causes more anxiety and trauma (Berardi & Morton, 2017). Trauma informed education can easily be included in teacher professional developments and continuing education for school professionals. This is a plan I have for the foster community in order to serve them in a way that is meaningful to them.
I choose this picture because I think it gives a brief and practical way to support someone who has experienced trauma recently or in the past and is a way to understand what crisis intervention might look like for caregivers of children in foster care. This type of education is important to the community and is a way to help students in foster care feel more valued and gives everyone an environment in which they can grow which is discussed below on this website.
References
Echo (2019). Trauma Support [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2019 from https://www.echotraining.org/support-trauma-survivor-infographic/
Echo (2019). Parenting Classes and Resilience Training. Retrieved November 18, 2019 from https://www.echotraining.org/
Strengths-Based Needs
The image above shows a seedling sprouting from the ground, in an environment in which it is not expected to succeed. The picture is the epitome of the strength; resiliency. All children in foster care have some type of resiliency even when their environment extremely prohibits them from growing. This is a strength that must be focused on when working to help children in foster care. The stigma placed on children in foster care focuses on their negative behavior and how to fix the behavior. I believe that it is important to use the strength of resiliency in each child by looking beyond the behavior and looking into the environment in which prohibits them from growing. Once effective services are in place that fosters growth children can be resilient to become the version of themselves that they want to become.
Several literature sources and personal interviews discussed the strength of resiliency of children in foster care. Students are resilient in overcoming constant change between schools with early culturally appropriate interventions (Puig, 2013). Children and foster parents can be resilient in advocating for what they want in foster care matches if given the opportunity. Youth are also emotionally resilient in the relationships they have faced with their caretakers. The important question is how to give more opportunities to children in foster care to target this strength.
One of the largest needs expressed from my interviews and the literature is trauma informed training and education. Berardi and Morton (2017), say that schools can make a huge impact here and can use trauma informed education to connect more with foster parents and students. This is also beneficial to help caregivers reduce the effects of secondary trauma. Another need for children in foster care is the access to mental health resources. Some of my interviews had easy access to mental health services for the foster child and as a foster parent. They expressed that these services had a positive impact on their relationship with their foster child and helped them cope with the hard parts of their experience. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is working to bridge the gap for mental health services by opening a Behavioral Health Pavilion in 2020 with outpatient and inpatient services. The last significant need for children in foster care is more agency in the parent matching process. Services that help children identify their preferred living arrangements are less likely to run-away, more likely to feel welcomed, and are more likely to stay with their placements longer (Crosland & Dunlap, 2014). This is very important as the right match can help youth be the most successful in helping them develop the coping and executive functioning skills, they need to be successful at home, in school, and in their relationships.
References
Communication Matters (2019). Seedling [Online image]. Retrieved October 20, 2019 from https://commmatters.com/your-resiliency-impacts-your-executive-presence/
Nationwide Children’s Hospital. (2019). Behavioral Health Pavilion. Retrieved October 21, 2019 from https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/behavioral-health/behavioral-health-pavilion
Systemic Challenges
Children within the foster care system are often the target of systemic challenges because of the absence of agency. Many of the obstacles they face have come from a lack of resources that are not provided to them or their foster care families. The effect of these systemic challenges usually leads to burnout for parents and continued mental health problems for children. These challenges impact a child’s education, ability to form relationships, and self-esteem as they continue throughout their life.
From my interviews with caretakers of children in foster care, I learned that one of the largest systemic challenges is the stigma of child and parent behavior. Many times, there is a lot of judgement about the surface behavior of children without asking about the causes of their actions. This has led to over prescribed medications for a quick fix without working through the source of the behavior. The stigma of child behavior also leads to shame and guilt of parents in foster care because they want to be seen as an “exceptional parent”. Parents get anxious about taking their children in public or being involved in things outside the home because they worry about the shame from others. Teachers and other educational professionals often put low expectations on children in foster care which can stunt their potential and continues this stigma.
Other systemic challenges include the access to basic health resources. Very few agencies provide accessible therapists for children in foster care putting the responsibility on the parents. Requirements for quick and frequent health checkups are difficult because of the lack of paperwork or access to a doctor. Not all doctors can take patients immediately and can rarely meet with children in foster care regularly to meet the necessary requirements.
Within the placement process, children face challenges of overcrowded housing and insufficient relationships because of the lack of foster care parents and case managers. Sometimes the matching process for children in foster care and parents is not what is best for the child but is the only place they can go. Many from my interviews stated that proper matching can significantly alter a child’s trajectory in life. Along with these challenges, children in the foster care system have sometimes been raised through generational poverty. One of the people that I interviewed expressed that this can lead to an identity in material items or stealing. These continued behaviors are often looked down upon but have had little help in dealing with the source of the problem.
I picked the image above to help us understand the weight we have put on children and parents in foster care. You can see the burden in the child’s expression. Society has often diminished them to the result of their actions and it is time to stop to see who these people really are, to understand what they have been through, and to give them real access to help. It is time to stop giving in to our judgements of their behaviors and to start seeing their potential when given the appropriate resources and paths to success. It is time to end the stigma and to help children in foster care make positive leaps forward.
Reference
Tucker, S. (2014). Ending Punishment [Online Image]. Retrieved November 13, 2019 from https://kindredmedia.org/2014/11/ending-corporal-punishment-never-spank-child/#prettyPhoto
Annotated Bibliography
Barn, R., & Tan, J. (2015). Foster youth and drug use: Exploring risk and protective factors. Children and Youth Services Review, 56, 107-115. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.007
This study aims to understand the factors that impact foster youth and their use of legal and illegal drugs. The literature in the article recognizes that there are many studies that focus on a particular indicator of foster care, but that there is a lack of research done on the risk and protective factors of drugs that can improve the overall well-being of those in or recently out of foster care. The sample consisted of 261 foster youth in England, in which were surveyed to self-report their drug use in the last 30 days. Those who completed the survey were invited to a more in-depth interview, in which 35 people participated in. It was concluded from the surveys that, “the use of legal substances (i.e. alcohol & cigarettes) was largest (>70%); while use of Class B drugs (for example, cannabis) was slightly over 45% and Class A drugs (for example, ecstasy, heroin, crack/cocaine, LSD, amphetamines, aerosol) was lowest ranging between 1.7% and 14.4% within the last 30 days” (p.109). The author concluded that school exclusion, lower living skills, and placement disruption are all risk factors. Protective factors include in-care family support, education of living skills, and better perceived well-being in life. Limitations of the study include the possible bias in the sample in which it may not be representative of England and may not be used to generalize a different population. The practice of using self-reported drug use could over or under- emphasize the data in the survey results. The article seemed to do a great job of encapsulating the necessary risk factors as well as allowing the participants to add other factors that could lead them to drug use. Implications of sexual practices were included into the study based on the participants in-depth interviews that added to the article.
Berardi, A., & Morton, B. M. (2017). Maximizing academic success for foster care students: A trauma informed approach. The Journal of At- Risk Issues, 20, 10-16.
The article concerns the vulnerabilities of students in foster care in the P-12 system. Many of the students are not understood because teachers, administrators, and staff know little about the foster care system and places the students at a disadvantage. The author focuses on the lack of advocacy of students in foster care which continues to impact them through their entire educational career. The majority of the literature seemed to be from the last 10 years which makes the concepts relevant to the situations of students in foster care today. The author argues in the article that students in foster care have many disadvantages including trauma, lack of cognitive skills, and miss important schooling based on placement disruption. Berardi and Morton explain that schools can fix these problems by understanding the stress put on students in foster care and how that explains their behavior, the way they learn, and their overall nervous system. Schools can be more proactive in becoming trauma informed schools and by implementing practices that help all students feel safe and included. The article also informed the reader about the role of parents and caregivers in a student’s life and their emotional stress that could be impacting a child. I believe that the article was very relevant in accordance to the role that schools should be playing in all students’ lives and how to make them feel more welcomed. The article also noted that, “studies suggest that this is a notional epidemic, with well over 50% of the population, not just foster children, at risk for this impairment,” when discussing Adverse Childhood Experiences (p.13). This makes the argument for trauma informed schools even more relevant as it relates to more of the population. Along with the recent literature, I think that this article is well-written for its intended purpose.
Briggs, H. E., & McBeath, B. (2010). Infusing culture into practice: developing and implementing evidence-based mental health services for African American foster youth. Child Welfare, 89, 31-60.
This article reviews the lack of cultural interventions in mental health treatment, for African American youth in foster care, and the consequences of such practices. Literature early in the article, stresses for change in systemic education of mental health professionals especially in child welfare agencies that serve youth in foster care. The resources seem to be older, (10 – 20 years old) with the earliest literature from 2009, which was recent in the time of the article. The author takes the position that health and mental health supports should be evidence based and should have more support then they currently do. The author lays out a plan that understands the stressors impacting African Americans, the understanding of culture in mental health services, the consequences of culturally insensitive mental health programming, and the development and implementation of evidence based mental health services. Briggs and McBeath concluded that it is necessary for mental health organizations to increase investment in culturally appropriate mental health services for minority families, and that the most important factor is in staff supports, specifically for training and implementation. The article claims that the more evidence -based practices that are used, the more satisfied the clients and staff in the organizational climate and service quality. I think that the article would be more impactful if completed again with studies that are more recent as there is more awareness of cultural sensitivity and the importance of it. It would be interesting to know how these evidence- based practices worked and how they can be modified to continue to serve the people they intend. It would also be interesting to understand the changes in the education of mental health professionals since 2010 and how that has impacted their practices for African American foster youth.
Crosland, K., & Dunlap, G. (2014). Running away from foster care: what do we know and what do we do? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(6), 1697-1706. doi:10.1007/s10826-014-9972-x
The article presented discusses the serious implications of children running away from their placements in foster care. The goal of the article is to understand the prevalence of children that run away, the risk factors, and the motivations behind running away. The goal is to use the information to create interventions to prevent 1 in 8 children running away from their foster care placements and making them feel more welcome. The references are older but are recent for the time of the article. One of the main arguments presented by the authors is that children in foster care who ran away once were more likely to run away again; most of these children g to runaway shelters. Youth that run away are also more likely to participate in or be a victim of crime and are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. The authors found that youth are, “running ‘‘to’’ something (friends, family, activities, etc.) or running ‘‘away’’ from something (aversive placement, caregivers, etc.)” (p.1701). The article concluded that preventative measures can be taken by helping youth identify their preferred living arrangements and by providing the youth with social capital; such as networking skills, cognitive abilities, and social skills to help them be successful. I would question the authors’ conclusions about how we can prevent the youth from running away from their placements. They admitted that many of the interventions were short term, which means that more studies need to be done to make sure that lasting interventions can help youth with loyalty conflicts and help them be more successful in their placements. The article also pointed to a short coming that more studies could be used to focus on specific motivations of running away and more direct preventions that keep many in foster care safe.
Fawley-King, K., Trask, E. V., Zhang, J., Aarons, G. A. (2017). The impact of changing neighborhoods, switching schools, and experiencing relationship disruption on children’s adjustment to a new placement in foster care. Child Abuse & Neglect, 63, 141-150. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.11.016
The goal for this study was to analyze the impact of transitions for children in foster care; specifically regarding to changing neighborhoods, schools, and their relationships with biological family members. Cited articles note the importance of studies on children within the foster care system due to their “risk for many negative outcomes” (p.142). Although most of the literature was created in the years 2000- 2010, some of it is becoming outdated as this study tries to add a recent spin on an older study. The sample included 152 youth ages 7-17.5 years ranging in ethnicity, gender, and number of children in the foster home. The data was gathered from baseline interviews and assessments to gather information about the child’s current comfort in their home, their mental health status, relationship with peers, and school engagement. After concluding the study, the results revealed that it is important to make sure that children in foster care have help in their transitions between homes. Even more importantly, it is necessary not to assume that all transitions negatively impact children especially if the conditions in the new family, school, and home are better. It will actually be beneficial to their overall health and relationships. Implications for the study include sample size, and the need to control for the quality of relationships to biological family members prior to interviews and assessments. I would argue that in order to have more relevant information the author could have created a new sample instead of pulling from a previous study in addition to making sure the smaller sample was representative nation-wide.
Puig, V. I. (2013). Re-imagining language, culture, and family in foster care. Early Child Development and Care, 183(11),1625-1645. doi:10.1080/03004430.2012.744987
This article highlights how Early Interventions (EI) cooperates with families by providing cultural and linguistic resources as well as creating positive partnerships with families. A majority of families that participate in EI services are families in foster care in which the children have disabilities. The literature used seems a little dated but is all focused on early family experiences, and service needs of children in foster care families with disabilities. The study was conducted through family and professional interviews, as well as child observations. These families were from New York City homes of children in foster care that used EI Services. Families were picked based on specific criteria as noted, “(a) they were receiving EI services for young children, from birth to the age of three with disabilities and their families, (b) they were participating in a home-based EI service model, and (c) they were using the Spanish language in their households” (p. 1627). The interview protocol was included in the appendices in the article. The article focused on one of the families and the improvements made in the child’s language and coping skills, as well as behavior improvements that put the child on track for proper development. From the interviews and child observations, Puig confirmed the need for a change in the conventional understanding of family and culture as the foster care community see these very differently than others. The only implication of this article is the very specified focus on one particular family in New York. The article stated that this was representative of all families using EI in the foster care system, but that could have been confirmed with more accounts to support the information especially from other cities to show the impact of EI and the understanding of family and culture in a foster care family.