Annotated Bibliography
The starting point of resources I will use to create an interactive system that supports the mental health of youth in foster care.
Foster Care. (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2021, from https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/topics/foster-care/
This page from Sesame Street in Communities gives a lot of resources for providers/foster parents. These resources range from activities like games and videos as well as articles for parents to read. There is the ability to filter by age, time, type of activity or by topic. The videos explain hard topics, such as traumatic experiences, then provides the adult with ways to navigate these situations with the foster child. By using Sesame Street characters, I believe it would make it more interesting for children to watch. I will use this library as an example of resources that are available to foster families now. This will give me a better understanding of what topics are important in different age groups, proper language for talking to children, and how interactive tools can be used to create safe spaces. I hope to also talk to foster parents and discover if they have ever used these resources, if they know they are available, and why or why not they choose to use them.
Dupere, K. (2018, August 23). 6 problems with the foster care system — and what you can do to help. https://mashable.com/article/foster-care-problems/.
In this article from Mashable, they outline six major issues in the foster system as well as providing action steps that people can take to help. The six issues stated are: group home are too often a go-to, teens age out of the system without proper support, foster parents need more support to achieve success, there isn’t enough focus on reunification, children’s needs often go unheard, and the system is filled with too many rules, regulations, and players. I specifically want to focus on children’s needs going unheard and the lack of control children have due to the amount of rules and regulations. I realize I will not be able to change the rules set in place, but I am going to use this information to create a solution that gives children the sense of control they long for. This article is straightforward with the action steps which I will also use when thinking of an interactive system.
Pecora, P. J., Jensen, P. S., Romanelli, L. H., Jackson, L. J., & Ortiz, A. (2009, March 21). Mental health services for children placed in foster care: an overview of current challenges. Child welfare. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3061347/.
This article provides a wide range of statistics and useful information about the mental health of those in foster care as well as foster care adoption. According to this, children in foster care struggle much more than their peers that are in stable households. These struggles include medical problems that are unrelated to behavioral concerns, serious emotional issues, mental health problems and behavioral problems. The most common of these issues is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. By understanding that PTSD is the most common, it will shift the topics i address in my system as well as the language I use. By getting a better understanding about the specific things that children in foster care struggle with, I will be able to research more on those things in order to create a system that is supportive of such.
Dodge, D. (2021, January 8). Foster Care Was Always Tough. Covid-19 Made It Tougher. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/parenting/foster-care-coronavirus.html.
This article from The New York Times outlines new issues that are arising in foster care due to Covid-19. The most prominent issues are delays in placement and adoptions as well as forcing the older youth to age out of the system into a public health and economic crisis. Social worker visits, parenting courses, and courtroom hearings are also being moved remotely which makes things more difficult for the families as well as the caseworkers. Not only is Covid-19 affecting the time in which things are happening, it is also preventing foster families from going through with the adoption process due to unemployment. Understanding how Covid-19 is affecting the foster care system will help me in my project as it is the time we are living in. Things are changing everyday, and this includes for the children and families in foster care.
Jordan, L. (2009, May 26). Lack of Foster Parents Creating A National Crisis. Adoption.com. https://adoption.com/lack-of-foster-parents-creating-a-national-crisis.
The lack of foster families has always been an issue in the United States. However, the need for foster parents continues to rise every year. The number of children in foster care increases every year as the number of available foster homes continues to decrease. There is a great need for more foster families in order to support the system, but the families are not receiving the support they need to even get started. The lack of foster families creates even more trauma for children in care as they are left with no where to go. The knowledge of having no where to go adds to the children’s trauma and increases the pain they feel from being removed from their homes. Additionally, children are often left in violent and traumatic homes because there is nowhere to place them. Older children are often overlooked in the foster care system, and this leaves them with even less homes than the younger children.
McCann, M. (2019, November 1). Mental Health and Foster Care. https://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/mental-health-and-foster-care.aspx.
This article confirms the question I want to ask about the support of mental and behavioral health for foster children. This article states that mental and behavioral health as the “greatest unmet health need for children and teens in foster care”. A history of complex trauma, constant changing of homes, family relationships, inadequate access to mental health services and over-prescription of medications. There has been a great amount of research around the administration of psychotropic medications for children in foster care as well as the use of multiple psychotropic medications simultaneously. There is also concern surrounding the use of medications in children between the ages of three and six. All of these are extremely concerning facts about the foster care system that are important for me to understand as I begin my project.
Munson, M. R., Katz, C. C., Okpych, N. J., & Courtney, M. E. (2020, April 18). Mental Health Management Among Older Youth in Foster Care: Service Utilization and Preparedness. Journal of Adolescent Health. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X20300914?casa_token=cjS0YpSAR2QAAAAA%3AM6EsAi48TPMtWJqPYJq4Los6m2Ug300hbFguUh84wBU38ifgIbciiVc6jPr7joEJQA1bVfI.
The purpose of this study was to “document mental health service use among youth in foster care, examine how prepared they feel to manage their mental health, and investigate predictors of service use and preparedness.” From interviews conducted, the study found that one in five of the sample group reported feeling less than prepared to handle their mental health. It was also found that youth in foster care may be more emotionally literate than their peers, they may also realize that the resources they need will likely go away when they are aged out of the system. This research shows that it is imperative to prepare youth for mental stability at a young age and give them the tools to carry it with them in the future.
Hager, E. (2020, February 11). The Hidden Trauma of “Short Stays” in Foster Care. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/02/11/the-hidden-trauma-of-short-stays-in-foster-care.
This article discussing the issue of “short stays” in foster care. This is something I feel like is not typically talked about or really known about. “An average of 17,000 children are removed from their families’ custody and placed in foster care only to be reunited within 10 days”. Children that are removed abruptly typically come from police responding to a domestic call where they find drunk or high parents or a sparse pantry. The police then conclude that the children are in danger and take them to foster care. Unless there are immediately clear signs of sexual abuse or physical danger, children should be able to stay with their parents until a court hearing. Removing a child from their home is extremely traumatic, even if the child is gone for 24 hours. Many children felt like they were being kidnapped when they were taken from their homes. Reading this article made me think about how I could design something for children that must endure a short stay.
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2018). Helpingyouth transitiontoadulthood:Guidanceforfosterparents. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau.
Youth aging out of foster care is one of the biggest problems with the foster care system. Many of these people do not know how to cope on their own, have unaddressed mental health issues, and/or have experienced a great amount of trauma. This article from the Children’s Bureau provides a long list of things to address with foster children before they age out. It outlines what roles foster parents have in helping youth transition to adulthood which include being an advocate, a coach, their networker, and facilitator of relationships. Foster parents can do this by empowering youth to make decisions, communicate high expectations, start early, decrease control and increase youth responsibilities gradually, and recognize success. The article goes on to outline things foster parents can do to help their children. The one that stuck out the most to me was “Discuss critical health and mental health issues with youth while they are still in care, including the following: Positive ways for coping with stress and outlets for dealing with problems, risks associated with substance abuse and abuse and the vulnerabilities if biological family members struggled with addiction issues, sexuality and healthy sexual decision-making, signs and symptoms of mental illnesses and the impact of life experiences and family histories of mental health problems on a young adult’s mental health, and safe use of medication and healthy alternatives”. This article is such a great resource for me as I start thinking about what systems are most helpful for foster children.
Children, V. F. (2020, May 26). History of Foster Care. Voices for Children | A child heard. A life changed. https://www.speakupnow.org/history-of-foster-care/.
Understanding the history of foster care is important for my project so that I have knowledge about what has been done in the past and how we got where are now. Foster care started in the 1500s with “English Poor Laws”. These laws allowed youth in poverty, without a home, or those without parents to be placed in indentured service until adulthood. This practice was then carried to the Colonies where foster homes began. In 1853, Charles Loring Brace founded a program called Children’s Aid New York. The program founded by the minister provided housing, food, and schooling to orphaned children. This same program also created the Orphan Train Movement which placed orphaned children and poor families on a train from overcrowded cities to the Midwest. In the early 1900s, laws shifted from protecting guardians to protecting the children. This is also when reunification services became available and foster families created a foster care network. In 1935, the federal government approved the first federal grants for child welfare services. In 2012, California extended their foster care program to allow youth to remain in foster care until the age of 21. All of these things are important for me to note as I begin to create a system that will support the youth in foster care today.
