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Change is Needed
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There is an initiative working it?s way through a few states to professionalize foster care. The argument against the proposal seems to consist mainly of these rationale. ? I don?t want anyone calling me a professional.. I am in Foster Care because I love the kids!?
?If you professionalize foster care, you take away the love and the caring part of it!?
But what about the caseworkers that we all partner with? They are professionals, Right??? Does that suggest that they DON?T care about the kids on their caseloads? No one would argue that. As recently as the 19th century, and into the 20th century, welfare work was thought of as a volunteer endeavor. People who placed children with caregivers did so as church ministry or as part of a charitable organization. That?s right. Caseworkers were volunteers. But as society became more and more complicated, families assumed less responsibility for caring for each other. More people needed assistance. The regulations around taking children from their birth homes were inconsistent. Someone reasoned that caseworkers needed more education and understanding of laws and the people they
served. Caseworkers became licensed and the standards for their performance were raised. There was accountability. No one in his right mind would argue that we should return to the view of social workers as ?volunteers for the public good?
The problem for foster parents, though is that foster care is changing. Becoming more complicated. Laws are passed that make it more difficult for us to get information about the children in our homes and that makes it possible for us to be accused of volitions or abuse with little or no evidence. The epidemic of Meth and alcohol use and the breakdown of traditional families has sent huge numbers of kids into the system. And we serve a different kind of child.
Foster parents now have in our homes children who previously would have been placed under professional care. And that care requires training, We have to do more supervision of the children placed with us, both to protect and nurture them and to protect the other children in our homes. We?re seeing kids stay in foster care longer. That translates to more deeply disturbed kids than before. Older children also offer different challenges. That means a lot of frustration. Add to that the huge number of kids in foster care and the decreasing number of foster homes to care for them, and you can see the problem.
Sometimes, information we really need to care for these kids is withheld or given to us after we continually
harass the case worker Decisions are made about visitations and planning without our input. WHO KNOWS THE KIDS BETTER THAN WE DO.
Foster parents need to be a part of the team? an ESTEEMED part of the team? to make decisions for these kids OUR voices need to be heard. The input of a foster parent who see the child on a daily basis would be invaluable. Yet you know as well as I do the chances of a foster parent being consulted about decisions being made for a child in their care. The same chance a snowball has in?. We foster parents are seen as minimally-trained volunteers who bring little to the table but our love and good intentions.
Yet we are being asked to care for increasingly disturbed children. Through the new ?Family-to-Family? program, we are encouraged to interact with birth families. The idea of the program is that we foster parents may soon be mentoring the birth families as well as the foster child to expedite the reunification process the state requires. Our role is getting bigger and more complicated. There are fewer and fewer of us. The average ? life-span? of a foster home is less than two years.
A Foster Parent told me, ? I treat those kids just like I treat my own.? I doubt it. Your kids probably don?t have reactive attachment disorder. They probably don?t hoard food because
they are afraid they won?t get any more. Your kids are somewhat predictable because you gave them their values and their morals. These children come to us all ready wired with their own problems. We need an expertise beyond parental wisdom to care for them. We need skills as well as love. Once we acquire those skills, we need the freedom to use them as best we can to benefit the children in our care. That means participating in the decision making process and being informed about issues related to the children, and being treated with respect from caseworkers.
What other ? volunteers? do you know who would assume such responsibility, educate themselves to do their task, endure the degradation of other professionals and--in general--put themselves, their families and their homes at risk.
What is wrong with making foster care a profession? With requiring us to educate ourselves (we already do) and to participate in judicial and administrative decisions?? Would compensating foster parents for their efforts result in their not caring for their children?? Or would the worst parents leave foster care, unwilling to be accountable under standards professionalism would require??
Would being paid increased rates and given access to insurance and other benefits demean foster parents, or would the children benefit from more satisfied, less - frustrated stable care -givers??
Many people given the training required, could become caseworkers or lawyers or counselors. BUT not many people could become Foster Parents. The truth is not many people want to become foster parents. There?s a big sacrifice involved.
We are required to have ongoing education. Required to keep records. Required to keep our homes up to certain standards. I must attend meetings. I must attend trainings, do some transport, and have a caseworker come to my home at least once a month. I am expected to understand normal child development so that I can identify a child with problems in time to get them help. I administer medications and accept the legal issues involved with that. I am subject, at any time, to investigation and removal of children from my home on the word of a
dissatisfied child or parent. And I love the children placed with me!!!
BUT I AM NOT A BABYSITTER.
I am a professional. What?s wrong with treating me as one?????
?If you professionalize foster care, you take away the love and the caring part of it!?
But what about the caseworkers that we all partner with? They are professionals, Right??? Does that suggest that they DON?T care about the kids on their caseloads? No one would argue that. As recently as the 19th century, and into the 20th century, welfare work was thought of as a volunteer endeavor. People who placed children with caregivers did so as church ministry or as part of a charitable organization. That?s right. Caseworkers were volunteers. But as society became more and more complicated, families assumed less responsibility for caring for each other. More people needed assistance. The regulations around taking children from their birth homes were inconsistent. Someone reasoned that caseworkers needed more education and understanding of laws and the people they
served. Caseworkers became licensed and the standards for their performance were raised. There was accountability. No one in his right mind would argue that we should return to the view of social workers as ?volunteers for the public good?
The problem for foster parents, though is that foster care is changing. Becoming more complicated. Laws are passed that make it more difficult for us to get information about the children in our homes and that makes it possible for us to be accused of volitions or abuse with little or no evidence. The epidemic of Meth and alcohol use and the breakdown of traditional families has sent huge numbers of kids into the system. And we serve a different kind of child.
Foster parents now have in our homes children who previously would have been placed under professional care. And that care requires training, We have to do more supervision of the children placed with us, both to protect and nurture them and to protect the other children in our homes. We?re seeing kids stay in foster care longer. That translates to more deeply disturbed kids than before. Older children also offer different challenges. That means a lot of frustration. Add to that the huge number of kids in foster care and the decreasing number of foster homes to care for them, and you can see the problem.
Sometimes, information we really need to care for these kids is withheld or given to us after we continually
harass the case worker Decisions are made about visitations and planning without our input. WHO KNOWS THE KIDS BETTER THAN WE DO.
Foster parents need to be a part of the team? an ESTEEMED part of the team? to make decisions for these kids OUR voices need to be heard. The input of a foster parent who see the child on a daily basis would be invaluable. Yet you know as well as I do the chances of a foster parent being consulted about decisions being made for a child in their care. The same chance a snowball has in?. We foster parents are seen as minimally-trained volunteers who bring little to the table but our love and good intentions.
Yet we are being asked to care for increasingly disturbed children. Through the new ?Family-to-Family? program, we are encouraged to interact with birth families. The idea of the program is that we foster parents may soon be mentoring the birth families as well as the foster child to expedite the reunification process the state requires. Our role is getting bigger and more complicated. There are fewer and fewer of us. The average ? life-span? of a foster home is less than two years.
A Foster Parent told me, ? I treat those kids just like I treat my own.? I doubt it. Your kids probably don?t have reactive attachment disorder. They probably don?t hoard food because
they are afraid they won?t get any more. Your kids are somewhat predictable because you gave them their values and their morals. These children come to us all ready wired with their own problems. We need an expertise beyond parental wisdom to care for them. We need skills as well as love. Once we acquire those skills, we need the freedom to use them as best we can to benefit the children in our care. That means participating in the decision making process and being informed about issues related to the children, and being treated with respect from caseworkers.
What other ? volunteers? do you know who would assume such responsibility, educate themselves to do their task, endure the degradation of other professionals and--in general--put themselves, their families and their homes at risk.
What is wrong with making foster care a profession? With requiring us to educate ourselves (we already do) and to participate in judicial and administrative decisions?? Would compensating foster parents for their efforts result in their not caring for their children?? Or would the worst parents leave foster care, unwilling to be accountable under standards professionalism would require??
Would being paid increased rates and given access to insurance and other benefits demean foster parents, or would the children benefit from more satisfied, less - frustrated stable care -givers??
Many people given the training required, could become caseworkers or lawyers or counselors. BUT not many people could become Foster Parents. The truth is not many people want to become foster parents. There?s a big sacrifice involved.
We are required to have ongoing education. Required to keep records. Required to keep our homes up to certain standards. I must attend meetings. I must attend trainings, do some transport, and have a caseworker come to my home at least once a month. I am expected to understand normal child development so that I can identify a child with problems in time to get them help. I administer medications and accept the legal issues involved with that. I am subject, at any time, to investigation and removal of children from my home on the word of a
dissatisfied child or parent. And I love the children placed with me!!!
BUT I AM NOT A BABYSITTER.
I am a professional. What?s wrong with treating me as one?????
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2 Comments
Reply
Genie
06:56 PM on November 25, 2008
We are all professionals, however, If we insist on the title, will we be opening up ourselves to be taxed on the stipends we receive? I do not want the title to lead to us into problems with the IRS.
Reply
Javier Lopez
12:38 AM on December 10, 2008
What exactly are we thinking is going to change in regaurds to how children services looks at us and how we get treated by case workers and what are the Irs type ramifications or how will a change in status affect limitations on earnings due to retirement benifits. I think we need to be careful what we wish for untill these types of question can be properly explored, otherwise I am all for the proper recognition and respect for the job we are doing as "professional"