Youth Aging out of Care: An Overview
Saturday, December 1st, 2007 by Varda Mann-FederTechnological and medical advances have done little to decrease the numbers of children at risk in the developing world. Instead, with the increased sophistication of reporting systems, there seem to be increasing numbers of children and adolescents whose development is seen as compromised, whether because of overt abuse, neglect or an insidious pattern of parenting failures. Ultimately, a significant proportion of these young people require removal from their homes.Throughout recorded history, there has been a need to provide substitute care for children of all ages. However, the delivery of this care has changed radically over time, largely due to advances in our understanding of child development and the impact of parent child attachment. At the beginning of the twentieth century, orphanages and large group settings were the placement of choice for even the youngest children. Over time, there has been a dramatic shift to smaller, more intimate settings, with a strong preference for substitute families wherever possible.
At the same time, there is almost universal recognition that different children, depending on their history and the degree to which they have missed out on positive experiences, require different levels of structure and treatment. For this reason, being
Tags: Aftercare, Foster Care, Leaving care, Residential care, Throughcare
April 20th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
My grandson was just released from 3 years in residential care. This article is true to fact.
His experience mirrors the overview. He was released to his parents home with no services provided, not even a probation officer. He returned to the exact same environment. He lived with his father for 3 weeks and was kicked out. He now lives with us, his grandparents, and has for 3 months. The gains that he made in RTC disappeared quickly. He has in effect lost both of his parents and his siblings. He is non compliant and resistant to any structure. We are taking a Love and Logic parenting class (on our own) and have him attending counseling (when he will attend). The class we are taking is way to mild for the type of problems that we are encountering. I found this website in my own search for help. I have tried contacting the court that originally placed him and they don’t even bother to call me back. I will continue to search for advise, but wanted to thank you for your article.