Foster Care Assignment
Foster Care Assignment
Part I
Foster care refers to the services offered to children who cannot for various reasons live with their own families. Individuals at the foster care take the responsibility of parents by providing love, care, and safe environment for the child. There are various factors that inhibit the effectiveness of foster care.
First the process of foster care requires that a child is separated from his or her parents. This may be a distressful experience for the minor who does not understand the need to be taken away from the parents and familiar surroundings. The need for separation can lead to conflicts and resistance as the child may be unwilling to move to the foster parents. It is vital that the natural parents explain to the child the need for separation, for instance if the parents are drug addicts, they can explain to the child that they need to go and get better hence the need for foster care. If it is temporary, the parents and social workers need to explain that to the child (Tower-Crosson, 2008).
The effectiveness of foster care is also inhibited by the transitory nature of foster care and the need of the child to adjust to new environments. Children with adjustment problems may not do well in foster care hence rendering the system ineffective. Foster care provides the child with a new world where he is required to join a new family, new school, new surroundings, new neighbors and siblings. These changes may take a toll on a child with adjustments issues thus affect him negatively. Other than these factors that can inhibit effective foster care, there are several advantages of the system.
First, foster care provides a child with a second chance of enjoying his or her childhood. Foster care provides children with a safe environment that foster normal growth thus giving the child a chance at normalcy in life. In most instances, children moved to foster care are moved from harsh environments such violent homes to homes that are peaceful and caring. Foster care is also not permanent hence the foster child has a chance of reuniting with his family members after some time. Unlike adoption where the parent loses all rights over the child, foster care recognizes the birth parents. A child is, therefore, permitted to enjoy regular visits from his parents and siblings (Gerstenzang, 2007). Foster care also gives the child an opportunity at positive development. The child is moved from a home full of fear, abuse and neglects to a home that shows him love, care and support. The child, exposed to the positive environment, has an opportunity to adapt positive attributes and focus on becoming a responsible and reliable adult in the future.
The main disadvantage of foster care is that the foster parents may lack adequate skills to take care of the special needs of the child. For instance, a child may come from an abusive family hence suffers psychologically. A foster family may be unable to handle the child especially if past experienced led to tendencies such as aggressiveness of withdrawal from society. A child may also move from one foster home to another over a short period of time. This interferes with the child stability as he has to adapt to a new environment every time (Tower-Crosson, 2008). Foster care can also turn out to be more demanding than expected. Once the foster parents take in a foster child, he or she is required to ensure the child fully settles in the new environments. Responsibilities such as educational needs, transportation need, and medical needs rest on the foster parent. An ill-prepared foster parent may find it overwhelming thus fails to offer adequate foster care.
The temporary nature of foster care may be difficult to handle for foster parents who have to let go of a foster child after some time. Some foster parents form lasting bonds with their foster children to the extent that they consider then as their own biological children. Unfortunately, foster care is either short term or long-term and come to an end. The separation as the foster child return to his parents may be unbearable for the foster family to handle.
When dealing with foster care, the foster parents are the most essential part of the arrangement. The foster parents provide the child with a home free of abuse and or neglect until they return home, get adopted or become independent. The foster parent also provides the child with basic necessities like food provisions, clothes, medical care and schooling. The foster parents also work towards nurturing and guiding the child’s development by giving guidelines on rules and discipline (Tower-Crosson, 2008). The foster parent, if possible, should work with the child’s biological family. The child’s biological should not be considered an alternative family, but an extension to a larger family where the child belongs.
Part II
Process of becoming a Foster Parent
Foster care homes are always looking for individuals who want to be foster parents. There are several basic requirements that individuals wishing to be foster parents must meet. First, the individuals must be a US citizen above 21years of age. The individuals must be financially stable with a stable income, and adequate space to accommodate the child at home. If married, both partners must show commitment in adopting the child. Overall the individual must be of sound health, physically, mentally and psychologically. If individuals have all the above qualifications, then they can present their interests in any foster home of their choice.
Interested individuals are advised to attend information nights and learn more about being a foster or an adoptive parent. The individuals also attend pre-training orientation, which involves working with professional to get an overview of foster care. The next step is the completion of the foster parent application form. The application form includes affidavit of US citizenship, health valuation for all household members, financial statements to prove financial stability and a singed foster care program agreement.
Once the social workers review the application forms and all other documents and verify that everything is alright, the applicant engages in a home study. This is a verification process of the home environment that the foster child would go. The applicants are required to provide their birth certificates, medical reports and proof that none of the households has ever been involved in any cases of child abuse and neglect (Gerstenzang, 2007). A social worker also reviews the existing parenting skills of the individual, their discipline methods and their child care plans.
The potential foster parent must also complete a series of compulsory training. The training sessions are aimed at helping an individual become a better parent. The potential foster parent also learns how to deal with the biological parents of a child. Training is also done to help the foster parents enable the child adjust into his or her new home. Training is mandatory and takes approximately 27 hours. The main focus of training involves dealing with foster children who have experienced trauma, grief and, or loss. Upon the end of training, the individual is approved as a foster parent and preparation for placement begins (Barth, & Berrick, 2010). Child placement is done according to the match that a foster parent desires. This reduces the risk of conflict of interest that may negatively affects the foster parent and, or the foster child.
The approval process to become a certified foster parent takes approximately 6months. This may vary depending on the availability of the potential foster parent to attend training or when the home study is completed. Overall, for dedicated individuals the process is simple to accomplish. Training takes 27 hours only. A dedicated individual can find time to complete the training at one go, is certified and waits for a child. The process of being a foster parent is also easy for individuals that are open to the type of child they need. If an individual is open in terms of ethnicity, race, religion and special needs of a child, then he is more likely to become an active foster parent than an individual who is choosy and very specific over the ideal child to provide foster care (Gerstenzang, 2007). Foster care programs always welcomes parents interested in taking foster children. The training is thus simple and aimed to ensure that the foster parent has adequate skills to take care of the foster child on a short and long term basis.
Reference
Barth, R. & Berrick, J. (2010). From child abuse to foster care. Aldine Transaction
Gerstenzang, S. (2007). Another Mother: co-parenting with the foster care system. Vanderbilt University Press
Tower-Crosson, C. (2008). Understanding child abuse and neglect. Pearson/Allyn & Bacon
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