CHILDREN RESIDENTIAL SERVICES

Children Residential Services



Children Residential Services

Introduction

Child Welfare or Children's services for profit began in England in 1562, and was soon imported into the American colonies. Foster Care is defined as temporary shelters for children removed from their homes for various reasons including abuse, neglect, adoption, death and illness. The essential objective of the foster care system is to offer harmed and abandoned children with protection, permanency, and well-being. One of the most significant organizations in setting standards for child welfare services is the Children Residential Services. The average amount of time spent in the foster care system for children in the year 2005 was 28.6 months. For that same year over 50% of children were reunified with their birth parents or primary caregivers (Jee, et al. 2005).

Discussion

In my opinion, 26 dead children are too many when there are simple things that can be implemented or changed to improve the foster care system.

Research suggests that children not reunified with their birth parents within a short period tend to experience multiple placements in foster care (Leslie, 2003). Subsequently children who experience multiple placements are more likely to develop abandonment issues if they do not have them already. Children placed multiple times are sometimes unable to a look into the Foster 3form good attachments to foster parents because they are afraid they will be moved again. Something that needs to be changed in the system is the number of placements per child. Children need to know that they can rely on the family with whom they are placed (Massachusetts Department of Social Services, 2003).

Although there are quite a few things that need to be done to better serve the children who are placed in the foster care system a few of the important things are the lack of psychological training in development and attachment theory by foster and adoptive parents. If the parents understood the fears and problems of the children, they could help the children move on from the past and have a future. Did you know that only two percent of all children in foster care go on to attend college?

That is a staggering statistic. Imagine a society where the children of the foster care system were treated like any other child and did not have a stigmatism attached to them. I think if we reformed, the system eventually the poverty level would go down, the education level in the country would go up, and maybe, just maybe the number of crimes and people in jail would go down (Leslie, 2003). There are too many children going into the system and being overlooked because the current policies focus more on placement issues than on treatment issues.

“Children need constancy, connectedness and a sense of belonging to thrive.” Too often, child welfare policies and practices take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Instead, every situation should be viewed upon individually for each child in each age group. Child welfare strategy and practice should not only spotlight on the instant health and safety of children ...