Social and Environmental Barriers Effecting Children Existing Foster Care



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would first like to express my gratitude for my research supervisor, colleagues, and peers and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration.

ABSTRACT

In United States of America approximately 55,000 children are adopted each year and approximately 750,000 children are currently placed in some form of foster care. This vast majority of children (70%) have been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services due to physical abuse, neglect, abandonment, or parental substance abuse. There are many barriers being faced by the children in foster care. Given the growing movement toward more socio ecological and accountable models, we must begin to explore the role that service providers themselves play in contributing to social problems Lack of collaboration among service providers is a significant impediment, and yet, also unexamined as a barrier. From a humanistic perspective, future work must look at the large- and the small-scale barriers associated with the treatment of foster children. It is essential that mental health professionals consider the larger picture-in this case, how their role fits into the entire treatment scenario of the foster child and family-in order to better collaborate with the other case workers and thereby create positive change.

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

ABSTRACTIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Introduction of the problem1

Research Question2

Research Aims and objectives2

Summary3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

Introduction4

Theoretical Framework4

Literature Review5

Foster children in US5

Guidlines6

Description and Duration of Placement for Children in Foster Care7

Foster Family Homes8

Group Homes8

Social theoretical framework9

Characteristics and Risk Factors of Children in Foster Care10

Environmental Risks10

Collaboration11

Theories on creating collaboration13

Craftsmen Theory13

Identification of collaboratice capacity13

System perspective14

Summary16

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS17

Introduction17

Analysis17

Family Preservation17

Racial Preservation18

Bias against Faith-Based Outreach18

Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Requirements19

Environmental barriers19

Summary20

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION & CONCLUSIONS21

Introduction21

Recommendations21

Positive steps and barriers to collaboration23

Conclusion23

Summary24

REFERENCES25

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction of the problem

A state-supported foster care system was established in Massachusetts in the 1800 (Haugaard, 2002, pp. 313). Prior to the establishment of the foster care system in the United States, younger children in need of a home were left in the care of orphanages, religious organizations, or their extended families, while older children were apprenticed to tradesmen in order to prepare them for adulthood and independent living. This program paid families $2.00 per week to care for homeless and abandoned children (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002).

In 1933, Title IV of the 1933 Social Security Act introduced federal support for the foster care system for the first time, according to this act foster families were allowed to obtain monetary assistance equivalent to the cost of Medicare (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). More recently, in the 1970s and 1980s, the focus shifted away from foster care in favor or reunification with biological families (Paul, 2007). Included in this trend was a preference for adoption as an attempt to avoid prolonged out-of home placements, as well as the unfortunate and detrimental trend of what came to be known as "drifting" that is, a child being handed off from one foster home to another (Simms, 2000, p. ...