Foster Care: Not my Kid, Not my Problem?

Foster Care: Not my Kid, Not my Problem? 

The system that is in place for foster children is not working. It's an ongoing problem that does not seem to be changing. Children across the United States are being ignored by their own states. According to KVC Systems, an organization that helps in stabilizing families in crisis, per day, there are about 428,000 U.S. children are in foster care. KVC Health Systems, also estimates that about 20,000 children "age out" the system. This means that those children either do not get adopted or have a stable living situation by the age of 18, which then they are legally an adult.  Some end up running away before they even age out.  Researcher and Writer Cris Beam states that "for many older kids who don't end up with families, cynicism sets in, and around 12 or 13 years old, they decide to run out the clock and wait for emancipation. Once they turn 18, they can go out on their own. Beam also says that "being independent without strong family support is dangerous." "The reality is they need someone to fall back on. They need parents when they're 20 or 23," Beam says. "Think about when you had your first heartbreak, your first job loss, your first crush, your first crash, your first anything. When kids hit any little stumble at all ... they need to have someone they can call upon. What we really need to be finding for them are families." -Cris Beam

The people who end up fostering kids are not always good people. There are horror stories of physical and sexual abuse and also neglect. This can affect them mentally throughout their life. The Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry did a study on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in older foster youths. Its results were "Sixty-one percent of the youths qualified as having at least one psychiatric disorder during their lifetime; of these youths, 62% reported onset of their earliest disorder before entering the foster care system. In addition, 37% of youths met criteria for a psychiatric disorder in the past year. The number of types of maltreatment experienced was the most robust predictor of psychiatric disorder among several maltreatment variables." What they concluded was "those older youths in the foster care system have disproportionately high rates of lifetime and past year psychiatric disorders."

 Also, even if a child ends up adopted, there's not a guarantee that they won't be sent back as was the case of Claudia Felder. Fortunately, she was adopted again by her social worker and it remained permanent.

Each year, the amount of children in foster care increases more and more. One reason could be to the rise of substance abuse, including opioids, in parents who have to hand over their children to the state. Parallelling this, The Economist has reported that the rate of adoption being done in America is dwindling.

 Another reason, according to NPR,  "In a recent report by the Chronicle of Social Change, a nonprofit publication, finds that as the number of American children in foster care increases, there is a concurrent shortfall in the number of foster homes to accommodate them... 'At least half of the states in the U.S. have seen their foster care capacity decrease between 2012 and 2017. Either these states have fewer beds and more foster youth, or any increase in beds has been dwarfed by an even greater increase in foster children and youth.' 

Another could be "In addition to the challenges that are driving an increase in demand for child and family services is another growing problem: there is a well-documented national social worker shortage. Particularly in rural areas, this can lead to higher caseloads for child welfare workers, higher burnout and turnover, and decreased quality of services for children and families."

  There needs to be more resources set in place. Like stated by the KVC, "Access to substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, safety net supports, and other community resources is on the decline in many communities, making it difficult for families to get the help they need." There should be a way to rehabilitate families affected by any type of abuse. There also needs to be more awareness of the foster care system out there. If information on the system was more commonly known, it could help bring about changes to a system that needs reform.