The Mental Health Effects of Children in the Foster Care System

           Abstract

In the foster care system in the United States has millions of children who are lacking families a deal with emotional and physical abuse daily, and the outcome of these problems is unstable mental health in the children and those who age out of the foster care system. The only way to move forward with the individuals affected by this is by having more strict and secluded regulations and requirements to foster children, and include therapy sessions for foster children regardless of what the social workers are aware of what is going on within the households of these homes. With extended amounts of therapy, this allows the children to open up and feel more comfortable with therapists and discussing these problems by building healthy relationships. As for adults who age out of the system and have deal and suffer the outcomes of unstable homes with more than one form of abuse or any abuse that is involved, there should be access to federally funded therapy sessions with them.

Keywords   Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Foster care system, Children, Teen mothers.

Wilson, K., Glebova, T., Davis, S., & Seshadri, G. (2017). Adolescent Mothers in Foster Care: Relational Ethics, Depressive Symptoms and Health Problems Through a Contextual Therapy Lens. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 39(3), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-017-9417-ye3

The main key points in “Adolescent Mothers in Foster Care: Relational Ethics, Depressive Symptoms and Health Problems Through a Contextual Therapy Lens. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal” by Wilson, K., Glebova, T., Davis, S., & Seshadri, G. points out mental and physical health in teen mothers, 15-19 years of age, in the foster care system, Family and non-family placement, the impact of Contextual Theory, and broke down how they participated in the study of the dissertation project which was a part of the University’s Review Board.

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This study was conducted in order to notice the issues within the foster families to begin with to see where addressing needs to start and where, as a system, can improve on the needs that children have to have satisfied. By focusing in the teens age group, researches are able to notice the impacts actions have on them. Caring for foster children can be a way to help kids without a home or to build your own family. But your foster child's behavior might often baffle you. Foster care -- even good foster care -- can have profound effects on a child. Every move your foster child has had to endure, even if the previous home was abusive or neglectful, takes a toll on his security.

The main focus of the study was to focus on the mental health stability of the young adolescent mothers who were out of options. The concluded outcomes are that minors are at a higher risk rate to teen pregnancy, drug use and depression when in the foster care system. This is because of emotional abuse and lack of affection from the foster care families.  Contextual Therapy theory was brought up in this research, it includes family history, family therapy and systematic transactions. This determines to teaching a way of trust and compatibility within a family trying to work out their flaws and where they lack their strengths.

Garcia, A., O’Brien, K., Kim, M., Pecora, P., Harachi, T., & Aisenberg, E. (2015). Adverse Childhood Experiences and Poor Mental Health Outcomes Among Racially Diverse Foster Care Alumni: Impact of Perceived Agency Helpfulness. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 24(11), 3293–3305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0132-8

Investigation has illustrated that youth who age out, or liberate, from cultivate care confront pernicious results over a assortment of evidence in early adulthood. This article builds on this information base by exploring the part of antagonistic childhood involvement amassing and composition on these results. A inactive course examination was performed to distinguish three subgroups: Complex Adversity, Natural Adversity, and Lower Adversity. Contrasts are found among the classes in terms of youthful results in terms of socio-economic results, psychosocial issues, and criminal behaviors. The comes about show that not as it were does the aggregation of difficulty matter, but so does the composition of the misfortune.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Poor Mental Health Outcomes Among Racially Diverse Foster Care Alumni: Impact of Perceived Agency Helpfulness has taken the main focuses on placement instability and how this affects the depression in young children. The testing focused on kinship and then placement in foster care homes. The NCFCAS study was used in this case to determine placement instability that counteracts with the diagnosis of depression. This occurs over a time span of 12 months through doing a proper evaluation and diagnosis by gathering all the housing details of the child in the foster care system.

The focused clients ranged from 22-29 years of age who were placed within the foster care system and are currently dealing with depression and life difficulties such as finding a job, having a stable family life with their children and spouse, and unable to maintain professional relationships. These are the signs of adults who are dealing with depression that were placed in the foster care system and aged out in it with depression that was never treated or diagnosed.

Turner-Halliday, F., Kainth, G., Young-Southward, G., Cotmore, R., Watson, N., McMahon, L., & Minnis, H. (2017). Clout or doubt? Perspectives on an infant mental health service for young children placed in foster care due to abuse and neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect, 72, 184–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.012

Newborn children who enter foster care are at chance for creating different social and enthusiastic issues afterward in life. These behavioral issues frequently result in foster children being put with numerous distinctive families during their childhoods. In turn, an unsteady family life can lead to genuine conduct disarranges and mental wellbeing issues. The infants' misfortune of them to begin with connection relationship increases the dangers for creating these issues, indeed in case the quality of care was destitute earlier to expulsion. Infants' responses to this misfortune, combined with other vulnerabilities, complicate the improvement of modern secure connections to their cultivate care families. Earning a secure connection relationship between cultivate guardians and cultivate newborn children may decrease the infant's hazard for creating tricky mental wellbeing and conduct issues.

In the case study, Clout or doubt? Perspectives on an infant mental health service for young children placed in foster care due to abuse and neglect, the target age is newborn up until 5 years of age and is focused out of Scotland foster care system. Depression is detectable at such a young age and shows evidence in as young as infant. NIM, New Orleans Intervention Model, has become the intervention model used for this study. NIM offers a detailed assessment of the infant development, or lack of, in order to show the rates of depression and if rates are enough, then a treatment plan is created by a social worker, psychiatrist and a therapist.

The most effective way of collecting data was through care takers. The individuals who were held responsible for the children, the foster parents would be asked a series of questions for the conclusive data. For phase one, qualitative questions were asked. For phase two, was evaluation while still seeking information from the foster care parents. The last part was sampling purposive, which all members involved were gathered in order to form a conclusion on the family and if whether or not that child is in the best care. The findings are dealt and decided between “clout or doubt” clout meaning the dominance and doubt meaning lack of care and importance. This process allows social workers the ability to compare the two sides and gives them the ability to easily conclude which side of the argument the child should be placed on.

AllisonD. Rayburn, Matthew C. Withers, Lenore M McWey JFam(2018) The Importance of the Caregiver and Adolescent Relationship for Mental Health Outcomes Among Youth in Foster Care.

In foster care, when infants enter the system, they are vulnerable, small, and emotional. They attach so easily. With being detached from their mothers, there is increased risk for depression as they grow older due to not having that maternal bond. When there is not a maternal bond, problems can come about from this such as depression, social anxiety, and stress.

In the Importance of the Caregiver and Adolescent Relationship for Mental Health Outcomes Among Youth in Foster Care, it focuses on the main impact of caregivers with infants up to adolescents. The exposure to distress shows in the infants as they grow older, you notice it during preschool and social interactions, in the confidence and how active they are with other children. When a child in depression and distressed, you notice very out of the ordinary motives and behaviors.

Once the children were old enough to communicate, they will give details about their thoughts. Some are easily described as terror when they go to sleep. They describe that they have certain nightmares and these dreams are able to explain their early infancy and childhood as depressing and traumatic. Early infancy trauma can be carried through the rest of that child’s life, as these memories stick and create depression when therapy is not incorporated properly. This is why the care givers relationship is so important and meaningful. The care givers of these infants in the system are so important, because when they’re exposed to violence, it is an exposure you cannot take back.

Stoner, A., Leon, S., & Fuller, A. (2015). Predictors of Reduction in Symptoms of Depression        Children and Adolescents in Foster Care. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 24(3), 784–797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9889-9

Depression is one of the foremost common mental wellbeing conditions. Numerous individuals think of misery as a clutter that basically impacts grown-ups. Be that as it may, it moreover impacts a critical number of teenagers. For a few teenagers, sadness may evoke self-destructive contemplations and indeed result in passing by suicide. Unnecessary to say, it ought to never be overlooked or expelled as a normal “symptom” or stage of youth. Children and teenagers within the foster care system have less favorable mental health outcomes than those within the common population.

Within this framework, depression is one of the foremost commonly analyzed disorders, with predominance rates up to three times that of their peers, and is related with long-term negative results such as more prominent substance use, suicidality, and psychiatric hospitalization. The hoisted rate of misery in children and teenagers in foster care and expanded hazard of unfavorable results over time highlight the significance of recognizing variables that advance diminishment of indications of misery in this populace.

The testing in this article regarded 228 children and adolescents who were qualified for the Traumatic Stress Testing (SOC) treatment. Those who were candidates described symptoms that were equal to depression. The group was then transferred to a case regarding 503 individuals and the age ranged between 4-20 years of age. These young individuals each expressed some form of abuse. Many of which were forms of physical and emotional, the most difficult part of the emotional pain was that you cannot locate it or target it. The way emotional abuse is treated with years or never-ending therapy, and possibly even medication depending on chemical imbalances in the brain or if that individual just needs extra help to feel more uplifted. The easy part of physical abuse is that you can locate it and treat it. But, the downside is that it comes with years of trauma and emotional pain that is extremely difficult to correct. The outcomes of this are concluded by ODA results, which determines exploratory data. The way to help the individuals heal is through Cognitive Therapy.

Riebschleger, J., Day, A., & Damashek, A. (2015). Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before, During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 24(4), 339–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2015.1009603

The amount of trauma experienced in foster care is mind blowing. There is no reason for any sort of abuse that is involved in the youth of foster care. In the system we need to work on adjusting the requirements, background checks and monthly visits to the home and monthly visits with physical doctors and therapists to make sure these children are being handled with love and care and not just for a paycheck from the government.

In Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before, During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, the therapy focuses on a group therapy and cognitive therapy session. The therapist came to a testimony that if youth individuals who are affected by trauma in the foster care system are able to relate to each other, they may feel less alone in he world and be able to relate to one another. The individuals who participated in the therapy ranged from ages 15-23 years old. As the participants age and get older and age out of the system, the more depression lingers up and joins them. Being through abuse in the foster system, and not receiving the proper counseling, can trigger alcoholism, drug use, homelessness, a sense of lack of belonging (suicidal rates) and eating disorders. All of these triggers and outcomes can be prevented by having constant house evaluations and consistent counseling sessions mandatory within the foster care system.

This study was performed in order to provide information regarding how much trauma cases go unreported. If trauma cases were reported more often then they happened and proper inspections were consistent, ineligible foster families would no longer be able to foster youth. They would lose their license and not be able to hurt anymore children.

In conclusion, the levels of trauma that youth experience in foster care are sky rocketed, the youth in foster care should not be experiencing such cruel behavior and leaving with depression, the foster are system fails these children every day and it is our job as social workers to find a way to change the system and do right by these children. Depression is effective and in charge in our youth currently today in the foster care system, the job as the social worker Is for us to notice the signs of emotional and physical abuse, including past traumas.

It has become noticeable that the common denominator in all of these articles and trials is that therapy seems to hep with the depression. If this the case thene therapy should be mandatory regardless, as social worker the children and adolescents need to be heard and listened to, not just shrugged off and thrown away, because of this, homelessness is so current from those who have aged the system, as well as drug addiction, teen pregnancy, gang joining, etc.

Resources

• Wilson, K., Glebova, T., Davis, S., & Seshadri, G. (2017). Adolescent Mothers in Foster Care:      Relational Ethics, Depressive Symptoms and Health Problems Through a Contextual Therapy Lens. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 39(3), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-017-9417-ye3
• Garcia, A., O’Brien, K., Kim, M., Pecora, P., Harachi, T., & Aisenberg, E. (2015). Adverse Childhood Experiences and Poor Mental Health Outcomes Among Racially Diverse Foster Care Alumni: Impact of Perceived Agency Helpfulness. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 24(11), 3293–3305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0132-8
• Turner-Halliday, F., Kainth, G., Young-Southward, G., Cotmore, R., Watson, N., McMahon, L., & Minnis, H. (2017). Clout or doubt? Perspectives on an infant mental health service for young children placed in foster care due to abuse and neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect, 72, 184–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.012
• AllisonD. Rayburn, Matthew C. Withers, Lenore M McWey JFam(2018) The Importance of the Caregiver and Adolescent Relationship for Mental Health Outcomes Among Youth in Foster Care.
• Riebschleger, J., Day, A., & Damashek, A. (2015). Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before, During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 24(4), 339–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2015.1009603
• Stoner, A., Leon, S., & Fuller, A. (2015). Predictors of Reduction in Symptoms of Depression        Children and Adolescents in Foster Care. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 24(3), 784–797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9889-9