Research that Benefits Children and Families

How fun it is to let my imagination run wild! Since I have the means and the knowledge to do so, my research stems from a question about today’s foster care system.

 

Background Information

Below is an excerpt of the pilot program initiated in San Francisco in the light of reforming the foster care system.

“Services to be provided:

RBS is a two-year experiment designed to determine whether better outcomes for children and youth with complex emotional and behavioral needs and their families can be obtained by integrating eight critical service components in one comprehensive package: The 24 month pilot can begin anytime during the Pilot Program time frame ending on January 31, 2016 and will vary per child referred to the Pilot Program.

Behavioral stabilization in a dedicated 6 bed family-centered residential treatment cottage;

Immediate and intensive family inclusion and support through the resources of a Family Connection Center;

Overarching care coordination through a family support team;

Evidence-supported therapeutic services;

Opportunities for interim community placements with parents, relative homes, or treatment or regular foster care;

Parallel community services while a child or youth is in the residential cottage to help families and community partners prepare for the child or youth’s return;

Intensive transitional care services, in-home treatment, and crisis stabilization and services following discharge from the residential cottage. 

The following children and youth are eligible for the program:

Male or female dependent children or youth ages 6 through 16 under the supervision of HSA who are in an RCL level 12 or higher group home, and their families who have behavioral needs that at present cannot be managed in the community using wraparound or other intensive community-based services,

And who have family members or other primary caregivers who are willing to work with the program to help the child or youth achieve permanency, safety and well-being,

But for whom a sustainable permanency plan is unlikely to be accomplished within the next 6 months unless intensive work is done to resolve difficulties in attachment and to address challenges presented by the child or youth’s persistent pattern of dangerous or disruptive behaviors” (Human Services Agency, City of San Francisco, 2011).

 

Rationale:

Children uplifted from their families of origin without being prepared and being assessed, have a greater chance to not perform well in their first foster home, move to another foster home, and often times end up having over 8 foster homes listed on their cumulative file before landing in a group home specialized in intensive care treatment. Children’s original trauma from home has now been multiplied by ten, or exponentially multiplied due to the almost irreversible negative emotional consequences that children develop from thinking they are bad kids because they can’t remain in the families they have been placed in, and feeling guilty about not knowing how to remain in a family. When they qualify for intensive care treatment, several more years of abuse and mistrust have established deep roots.

Since counties follow social science findings that children strive within their birth family, counties’ only goal is to reunite foster children with their birth families. Unfortunately, those birth families receive little help from the government. Consequently, children are encouraged to visit with their families who are not ready to welcome them in optimal conditions.  

Rather than spending money downstream, it would make more sense to dedicate that money upstream, help the families keep their children from the start so foster care does not become a need. Since huge amounts of money are spent on institutions who hire highly specialized staff, the money invested in keeping those families together will be better spent because the only trauma children will know comes from their family of origin, much like everyone of us, each person on planet earth.

 

 

Hypothesis:

Children fare better when they remain in their family of origin, provided those families receive all available services that will help children stay in their original home.