Children in Foster Care December 4, 2018 Webinar Instructions - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Creating a Support System for Children in Foster Care

December 4, 2018

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Agenda

• Introductions and Logistics

Welcome and Resource Center Overview Child Welfare and Healthy Relationships – Kary

• A. James, MSW, Child Welfare Information Gateway

Creating Healthy Relationships for Foster Families – Jacquelyn K. Mallette, PhD, CFLE, East

Carolina University

Supporting Youth Relationships by Supporting Families – Oriana Carey, MSW, LCSW,

Coalition for Children, Youth & Families

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Presenters

• Robyn Cenizal, CFLE, Project Director, National Resource Center for

Healthy Marriage and Families (facilitator) Kary James, MSW, Executive Director, Child Welfare Information Gateway Jacquelyn Mallette, Ph.D., CFLE, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Science, East Carolina University Oriana Carey, CEO, Coalition for Children, Youth & Families

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Welcome and Resource Center Overview

Robyn Cenizal, CFLE

Project Director, National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families Principal, ICF

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Focus on Core Skills

Healthy marriage education skills are the core components of healthy relationship education and include:

• Interpersonal skills such as communication and conflict resolution;

Along with critical skills like parenting and financial education.

These skills can be successfully integrated individually or collectively to reduce stress and improve communication.

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

www.healthymarriageandfamilies.org

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Healthymarriageandfamilies.org Visit: to see our new special collection

Special Collection

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Child Welfare and Healthy Relationships

Kary A. James, MSW

Executive Director, Child Welfare Information Gateway

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway

• Child Welfare Information Gateway promotes the safety, permanency,

and well-being of children, youth, and families by connecting current and future child welfare and adoption professionals, as well as the public, to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more. A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we provide access to print and electronic publications, websites, databases, and

• nline learning tools for improving child welfare practice, including

resources that can be shared with families.

Child Welfare Overview

The child welfare system is a group of services designed to promote the well- being of children by ensuring safety, achieving permanency, and strengthening families to care for their children successfully. While the primary responsibility for child welfare services rests with the States, the Federal Government plays a major role in supporting States in the delivery of services through funding of programs and legislative initiatives.

Child Welfare Overview

Guiding Purpose & Standards:

• Child’s needs and welfare

Preserve family unity when possible Time-limited involvement Our children*… 437,465+ currently in foster care 117,794+ waiting for adoption 700,000+ confirmed victims of maltreatment

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

The Goals of Child Welfare

• The goal of child welfare is to promote the well-being, permanency, and

safety of children and families by helping families care for their children successfully or, when that is not possible, helping children find permanency with kin or adoptive families. Among children who enter foster care, most will return safely to the care

• f their own families or go to live with relatives or an adoptive family.

The Child Welfare System

• Report of suspected abuse or

neglect Assessment/investigation of allegations Case determination

• Substantiated

Unsubstantiated

• Family-preservation services
• Case planning

Out-of-home placement

• Various placement options
• Case planning

Permanency planning

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Healthy Relationships with Foster Youth

• While many youth are resilient in the face of their removal, the reality is

that being removed from a biological parent’s care is a traumatic experience of a child, regardless of their age or circumstances at the time

• f removal.

Research shows that undergoing adverse experiences early in life can have a significant impact on short term social and emotional functioning, as well as long-term stability of physical and mental health. This translates into youth having difficulties forming and maintaining healthy relationships with peers and adult figures throughout their lives.

Support the Development of Lifelong Connections

Children and adolescents in foster care need long- term, supportive, and nurturing connections. Many foster youth lack these connections, and the longer they spend in care, the harder it is for them to learn how to create this type of healthy bond. Constantly moving foster homes, changing social workers, having to adjust to multiple school placements, or a lack of a solid familial support system make it difficult for children to feel connected.

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

How to Support Foster Youth

• Encouraging children to contact, visit, and interact with immediate and

extended family members, when appropriate, who may remain in their life beyond the time the child welfare system is involved. Paying attention to the number of relationships a youth has with non-child welfare professionals, and encouraging interactions with non-system-based supportive figures. Modeling healthy relationship skills including positive communication and conflict management can establish a solid foundation for strengthening resiliency and developing healthy relationship skills that will serve them into adulthood.

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Resources

For more detailed information about the child welfare system, and promoting healthy relationships for foster youth please refer to the resources listed below. For more information about the child welfare system in your State or local jurisdiction, contact your local public child welfare agency.

• Zero to Three: Social and Emotional Development. https://www.zerotothree.org/early- development/social-and-

emotional- development Child Welfare Information Gateway: Resources on Nurturing and Attachment. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/ preventing/promoting/protectfactors/ nurture-attach/ Badeau, S., & Gesiriech, S. (2003). A child’s journey through the child welfare system. Washington, DC: The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. Retrieved from http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_ work_report_detail.aspx?id=48990 Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2011). Understanding child welfare and the courts. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau. Retrieved from https://www. childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/ cwandcourts.cfm Goldman, J., & Salus, M. (2003). A coordinated response to child abuse and neglect: The foundation for practice (The User Manual Series). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://www. childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/ foundation/index.cfm

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Contact Information

Kary A. James, MSW Executive Director Child Welfare Information Gateway Email: kjames@childwelfare.gov Website: www.childwelfare.gov Free Subscriptions: https://www.childwelfare.gov/subscribe/

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Creating Healthy Relationships for Foster Families

Jacquelyn K. Mallette, PhD, CFLE

Assistant Professor, East Carolina University

Challenges for Foster Caregivers

Parents

Setting boundaries and blending families Feelings of grief and loss Stress on the couple/coparenting relationship

Children

Child behavior and discipline Emotional issues: depression, aggression, anxiety, regulation, hyperactivity, mistrust, difficulty forming friendships

Foster Care System

Navigating the complexities of the system Not feeling supported Lack of recognition and communication

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Research Questions

• 1. What are the strengths and challenges of maintaining healthy family

and/or couple relationships while foster caregiving?

• 2. What aspects of fostering are protective versus stressful for family

and/or couple relationships?

• 3. From which sources of formal and informal systems do foster caregivers

receive the most helpful and tangible support?

• 4. What are the formal support needs of foster caregivers?

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Focus Groups in North Carolina

• Three focus groups over six months

12 total participants; 10 mothers & 2 fathers Two counties in Eastern North Carolina Videotaped, transcribed, coded; emergent themes

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Preparation and Support for Adoption

• "I want permanency for him because if something were to happen to me, he

goes back into the system and nothing breaks my heart more than think that because my family isn’t licenses or doesn’t have the right to him, that he would go back into the system" "I really think one thing they’re lacking is how to handle the foster parents when these changes go on, when things move to adoption and how social workers are still in that, “don’t say the word adoption.”"

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Support from Trainings & Formal Systems

• “Sometimes I’m scared to ask our social worker because I think they’re

typing something or it’s negative to me. I don’t feel like I can be completely honest.” "It’s just a weird dynamic…It’s such a weird thing and you don’t want to say the wrong thing. Sometimes I’m like they think I’m a bad foster parent and I just don’t care about her.“ "Nothing I learned in [training class] has been applicable to my experience in two years as a foster parent.“ "The whole [training class] was geared towards just fostering…and all the information is how to deal with older kids and traumatized kids."

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Support from Informal Systems

• "Having someone to understand what we’re going through because our

parents all day long can come and help and our friends can come and help but have that network of people that truly understand how hard it is“ "I feel like for the foster care side of things the support group we have has made a huge difference in my viewpoint on foster care. I think it has kind of helped me work through the hard, dark feelings about it“ “I’m single so I couldn’t really do it without my family’s support like my parents and sister-in-law and brother.”

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Strain on Family Relationships

• i
• "There’s definitely nothing in there about when you’re bringing someone else

nto the relationship" "My family is learning, but sometimes I don’t want them to learn all that. I don’t want them to worry“ When asked whether fostering changes the couple relationship: Wife: “Oh, yes” Husband: “And if you say it doesn’t, you’re lying!”

Conclusions and Implications

They expect us to be “like robots.”

• Foster parent retention and placement

stability for children improves when foster parents feel supported Content of trainings may be revisited to include relevant information Formal and informal support systems would be useful for foster parents to have people who understand what they’re going through Foster parents may benefit from Family Life Education programming that targets the strain on the couple or parenting relationship, as well as the strain on familial relationships

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

Supporting Youth Relationships by Supporting Families

Oriana Carey, MSW, LCSW

CEO, Coalition for Children, Youth & Families, Inc.

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

What we know…

Connection and relationship is what helps heal the effects of childhood trauma ultimately helping youth to form healthy relationships with

• thers.

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

We Need to Support the Caregivers By:

➢Providing access to accessible and reliable information

Why: In the past families had to search for information. Today they can find an abundance on the web, but not all is good information. Examples:

• Simple How To’s

Lists of providers that have been endorsed or vetted Newsletters and Tip Sheets

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

We Need to Support the Caregivers By:

➢Providing an ability to network and connect with other families like them

Why: Family events and support opportunities normalize the challenges the entire family is experiencing. Adults, children and teens. Examples:

• Coalition Parent Talks

Family groups run by families

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

We Need to Support the Caregivers By:

➢Providing opportunities to build confidence through on-going learning

Why: What veteran families have shared is that it is easy to forget things you once believed without keeping yourself connected to new ideas, practicing them, and sharing with others. Examples:

• Classes that build in learning, networking, practice, and debriefing

Our Home Our Family: curriculum we developed

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

We Need to Support the Caregivers By:

➢Locating and providing Peer Mentoring or Coaching

Why: While therapeutic inventions are helpful and needed, successful peer support and coaching provides more “real time” and/or hands on assistance. Examples:

• Parent Coaching Model – Anu Family Services Wisconsin/Minnesota

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

We Need to Support the Caregivers By:

➢Providing access to trauma responsive – foster care and adoption competent clinicians

Why: Families often struggle to find clinicians that understand the complexities of youth impacted by trauma and the foster care experience. (Grief, loss, transracial/transcultural issues, and family complexities) Examples:

• Child Trauma Academy: childtrauma.org

National Childhood Traumatic Stress Network: nctsn.org Center for Adoption Support and Education: adoptionsupport.org

Q&A

Questions and Answers

Facilitated by Robyn Cenizal

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Browse To Relevant Sites And Information By Clicking On The Links Here Use this Box to Ask a Question To Download Resource Center Products Featured in this Webinar Select Files Here

Contact Us

National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families

WEBSITE: www.HealthyMarriageandFamilies.org EMAIL: info@HealthyMarriageandFamilies.org TWITTER: @MarriageResCtr PHONE: 866-916-4672