What Are We Fostering?

An article in the April 7th edition of the Oregonian details a recently released study on the effects of foster care that was conducted by Casey Family Programs and the Harvard Medical School. According to the article, "former foster children in Oregon and Washington are twice as likely to be depressed or suffer from anxiety as the general population".

While I certainly understand the need and motivation for this kind of study, the results should come as a surprise to no one. Regardless of the fact that foster care is the best current mechanism at our disposal to provide safety for children from dysfunctional homes, it still represents a defining moment in the life of a child.

I don't say this as an armchair quarterback. During the 1980s I worked both as a caseworker and child abuse investigator for state agencies in Arkansas and Missouri. Over the course of my career, I would estimate I removed over 100 children from abusive and/or neglectful homes.

Anytime I felt that removal was warranted, I invoked this action with a mixture of feelings. On one hand, I believe that the necessity of removal would provide the child[ren] with a measure of safety and sanity. NO child should be forced to grow up in a home environment in which they are subject to physical, sexual or psychological abuse and/or neglect. Studies (and common sense) have clearly shown that children who grow up in dysfunctional families are more apt to suffer moderate to severe psychological problems as adults.

On the other hand, removing a child from his/her home represents a horrific blow to the child's psyche. The family -- functional or dysfunctional -- represents a child's moorings. Cutting the line to this mooring leaves the child feeling adrift. No matter how many times a child is told, "It's not your fault", this belief is still somehow etched into the child's subconscious.

The foster care system itself only reinforces this subconscious feeling. Though the goal is almost always to find a permanent placement in the least restrictive environment, far too many foster children are moved from placement to placement. As the Oregonian reports,

Nearly 14 percent of children in Oregon's foster care system experience three or more changes in foster placements as they grow up, according to the Department of Human Services. Some counties have placement instability rates of 20 percent and higher, despite a national standard of 13 percent or less.

Each new move confirms to the child that the key problem is THEM, not their parents, social services or the system. It is no wonder then that these same children exhibit a great difficulty in establishing close or intimate relationships as adults or develop a poor sense of self.

So how do we improve the foster care system? As with most such issues, the best solution is prevention. Unfortunately, during this era in which people with problems are blamed for HAVING the problems, I fear we lack the political will to implement the necessary changes.

What we genuinely need to focus on includes

• Fighting poverty;
• Providing greater emphasis and funding for our educational and health care systems;
• Implementing Living Wages;
• Increasing unemployment benefits and job retraining programs;
• Developing better parenting and anger management classes that will provided free to anyone who needs them; and
• Creating a society in which each person feels respected and valued.

When you think about it, the solution is really straightforward and simple. We need to value people over things and accomplishments over accumulation.

Why must our society always take the simple and make it uncompromisingly difficult?