Written by: Katarina G.
Edited by: Olivia S.
The pandemic has brought up many concerns with the foster care system in Texas as it entered an ongoing crisis that includes the displacement of many children due to lack of beds and space. Austin Foster Fellowship is a Travis County based organization that advocates for the children in our community. With that being said, it is just as important to us to advocate for all children across the United States, not just those in Texas.
Here are the top 3 issues that need to be addressed:
The prevalence of mental health disorders of children in foster care.
In 2016, the Psychiatric Times conducted a study on medical and mental health issues among children in foster care and found that the statistics of children that were diagnosed with a medical or mental health issue was awfully high. When they studied children between the ages of 2 to 14 years old, they concluded that about 50% of the children were clinically diagnosed with mental health problems.
There are several factors that put children in the system at risk, such as exposure to substances in utero as they have a higher genetic rate of psychiatric issues tied to them. They are also more likely to experience substance abuse in parents and caregivers. The saddest part is the injustice they face as they are less likely to have had consistent prevention and access to primary care.
The presence of the mental and health challenges may increase a child’s risk of being placed in poor care and continuity in health care, increasing the trauma that they often face.
Teens aging out of the system without proper support.
Every year, thousands of teens are placed into group homes denying them of the opportunity to make that familial connection with an adoptive family or stable foster family. Having these stable connections gives the family the opportunity to mentor them for the real world. We learn valuable life and occupational skills from the adults who raise and mentor us, these skills often are important skills we carry into adulthood. Not having that connection often results in teenagers aging out of the system without the networking support needed to follow their occupational dreams.
At the young age of 18, these foster care children are not nearly prepared enough to be 100% on their own. Although many jurisdictions have extended the foster care age to 21, many kids are still affected by the lack of support from their caregivers or case workers. They cannot be expected to be let go and succeed on their own and deserve the support and guidance needed to begin their adult life.
Becoming a mentor in your community can greatly change the outcome for many children as you can share your connections and continue to advocate for stronger transitional measures for young adults in foster care.
Foster parents need more support too.
Becoming a guardian or foster parent isn’t easy and the amount of work and service that comes with the transitional process is a difficult experience to go through. No foster parent can fully prepare for how to address what’s going on in a foster child’s life in the early stages of the transition. As mentioned before, many of these kids have experienced some type of trauma in their early years and need proper care dealing with their trauma mentally and emotionally.
If the proper support was offered for foster parents during the beginning stages of establishing a relationship with the child(ren), the chances of disruptions in placement would decrease significantly.
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