Child and Adolescent Foster Care Mental Services



Child and Adolescent and Foster Care Mental Services

Introduction

The system of care philosophy arose from the recognition of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance in the form of lack of population with unique service needs (Stroul & Friedman, 1986). The main features of this philosophy include the need for cross-system coordination, focus on understanding the individual child and family strengths and needs, as well as the importance of establishing a continuum of services that such children may be filed in the least restrictive setting possible. Although the effectiveness of research questioned the benefits of the system of care initiatives (Bickman, 1996), these principles have become an important aspect of the philosophy of mental health practice with children (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2007).

For children involved in child welfare systems, the philosophical shifts that have occurred in the child mental health services appears to direct effects. Coordination between the systems requires the welfare of children of staff participation in mental health services planning and, possibly, treatment. Increased attention to the needs of families requires recognition of foster parents need training and support. Creating a continuum of community-based services supported reducing the emphasis on patient care and greater emphasis on specialized care and foster care as an intermediate level of care. Some evidence that the welfare of the child has to pay more attention on mental health issues can be found.

For example, the first large, nationally representative study, National Survey of Child and Adolescent Welfare, involves focusing on mental health and care needs of children involved in child protection and to promote services (Burns et al., 2004), indicating that the study child welfare community, at least, the views of the mental health of children, needs, and how child welfare and mental health services issue. Information on national archives of the sources, however, did not confirm that residential service is reduced in favor of community alternatives. Nationally, the available data suggest that an increase rather than decrease the use of residential settings, there have been over the last decade ([Ministry of Health and Human Services, 1999] and [Ministry of Health and Human Services, 2005]), an estimated 19% of foster children, living in orphanages and institutions in 2003. Although nearly half of foster children is estimated to emotional and behavioral problems requiring treatment (Burns et al., 2004), it is unclear how changes in the framework of children's mental health services affect the welfare of children.

Understanding of how the field of child welfare systems responded to the withdrawal motion is related to the proliferation of models at two different levels.

First, the changes that correspond to the system of care principles shifts may indicate the successful implementation of a coordinated system of care across the service system, in accordance with a system of care movement. In addition, the study of the extent that the system of care principles are reflected in the field of child welfare makes it possible to understand the larger issues associated ...