Question

Discuss why might a child come into foster care? What are the types of homes he/she might be placed in? What are some of the challenges associated with foster care placement?

Answer 1

The child enters the care system due to family distress, including measures such as poverty, domestic violence , drug abuse , sexual assault, homelessness, poverty, or abandonment. Foster care is intended as a temporary solution for creating a healthy and supportive family. Foster parents are responsible for ensuring the home atmosphere suits the needs of the child. Foster parents are permitted to make their own decisions about the child's position at home. Foster parents help the child find a position that is more appropriate to him or her and family. Children are put in foster care due to a number of different factors, including: child's status as a child of low-income families. Parents of a child may have other kids at home. The child is too young and vulnerable to remain with parents. There are other forms of foster care, such as a group or community homes and kinship care. Any facility holding six or more children is considered a group home. Initially, group homes were problematic in the foster care system due to a shortage of experienced operators and lack with industry regulation. Many group homes were run by professional social workers or those in religious groups who were influential in positively influencing the children to be raised in a home of love, security and safety despite lack of formal training. Kinship care is when fostering children to be put in a relative's home or person who know the child before being removed from home. There are some major challenges associated with foster care placement, first and foremost, foster care applicants are waiting long time for a placement. Many people seeking aid and support receive a call within 7-10 days. When the child requires a placement, the family can have to wait months or years to see whether they are accepted into the program. Furthermore , foster parents must participate in drug testing. Foster parents must agree to drug tests for any placement in foster care, and test results can be used against the parent if the parent or child is ill or dies. Foster care families also face discrimination, because they face so much rejection from families of adoption, that they become stigmatized in the society.