Systematic Reviews for Foster Care

While the importance of systematic reviews is evident in most fields of study, I believe this type of reviews are of particular importance in the social work field, and are incredibly relevant to my area of interest- the foster care system. There are a vast array of strategies on how to handle situations where children are unable to be cared for by their parents. Being that childhood is one of the most important stages in human development, and childhood trauma can have such a major and lasting impact on an individual, a systematic review that is able to efficiently and effectively synthesize the literature surrounding this broad topic is crucial. Also, the foster care system can have an impact on children and their families regardless of race, cultural background, religion, and socioeconomic status. With such a large population of influence, the sole finding a one or two studies would be insufficient, because those studies wouldn’t have been able to accurately account for all of the different variable of population. Also, the foster care system spans all over the country and, in fact, all over the world. Not only do we have to account for all of the possible differences in populations, but also the possible variables that can occur at different locations. All of these could not possibly be sifted through by one individual. Especially if this individual is looking for the best option for their client in foster care. A systematic review dealing with this topic would be the most effective at providing the needed information about best plan of care and all while eliminating a large portion of possible biases held by individual studies.

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