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E-Newsletter • December 2022 |
Editor's E-Note
Everyone involved in foster care requires support in order to ensure a good experience for families. Kristie Abbs, DSW, MSW, MED, looks at the needs of the parents and children and discusses the type of assistance that can bring about positive change.
We welcome your comments at SWTeditor@gvpub.com. Visit our website at www.SocialWorkToday.com, like our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter.
— Kate Jackson, editor |
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Supporting Foster Parents and Children
By Kristie Abbs, DSW, MSW, MED
Foster care has been in place since the 1800s with a focus on helping families. When looking at foster care, an identified need is to support foster parents and children placed in these care homes. Foster parents have essential roles in caring for children whose family members have encountered difficulties in their lives inhibiting them from caring for their children. These parents rely on foster parents to care for their children in hopes of reuniting with them. Foster parents allow parents to take care of themselves, learn, and grow to become better parents for their children. The grace given to these parents enables them to gain support from the foster parents, community, and society.
Foster Care Experiences
Foster parents have a unique opportunity to care for children in need. Children come into these homes for different lengths of time. Whether children stay with foster parents for a couple of days, weeks, or one year, support assists everyone involved. These children have typically experienced increased stress due to family situations. While parents are working to resolve issues, the impact of removal from the home can increase stress for the children and parents, placing more strain on the family. Foster parents also have changes within their own homes when children stay with them. In addition, foster parents often have their children or other family members living with them. When bringing in additional children, the family dynamics change. Another essential factor that stresses the foster parents is the uncertainty of when the foster children will leave their homes.
While it is the expectation for the program to reunite the children with their parents, it is often difficult to cope with leaving the foster home for the foster children, foster parents, and their families. Everyone, along with the children’s parents, must readjust to these changes. Offering support is a great way to increase coping skills and foster resiliency for the foster parents and children. Help in various forms significantly influences the experience and encourages foster parents to take in more children when needed.
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
The New York Times notes that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, has found a place in mainstream therapy for trauma and reports on the nature of the treatment.
The Visceral Response to Racist Comments
In an essay in The Atlantic, staff writer Chris Smith shares a shattering personal experience to illustrate the ways that the body responds to racist comments.
Denying Gender-Affirming Care in Florida
Science and gender reporter Azeen Ghorayshi covers Florida’s state medical board hearing on transgender health care and its vote to ban new adolescent patients desiring gender transitions from obtaining medications and surgery.
Criticisms Leveled at the Social Worker Licensing Examination
Critics have called the Association of Social Work Boards exam racist and charged that it fails more people of color than it does white applicants, denying them access to the field. |
The Trauma Recovery Center at USC
Funded through the California Victim Compensation Board, the Trauma Recovery Center at the University of Southern California has been created to provide an array of services to individuals not obtaining services elsewhere and to be a model of clinically and cost-effective care for crime survivors. Learn more » |
A Unified Digital Therapeutics Platform
Dario offers an integrated solution for chronic conditions that often occur together—diabetes, high blood pressure, weight management, pain, stress, anxiety, and depression. Learn more »
New App Screens for Substance Use Disorders
A new app for health care providers, pharmacists, and others who work with substance use disorder patients has been developed by the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit in a five-year partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. With the goal of helping health care providers identify and help those at risk for substance use and mental health disorders, Connect2Care provides screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment services. Learn more »
EMDR Institute Basic Training
Founded by Francine Shapiro, PhD, in 1990, the EMDR Institute trains participants in the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy methodology, an approach validated for the treatment of trauma in more than 30 randomized studies. The trainings include lecture, live and videotaped demonstrations, and supervised practice to enable participants to treat a wide range of clients and issues. Learn more » |
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