Should we abolish foster care and instead do family care?

Question

Where foster families take in a family and help them stay together by mentoring the parents instead of taking their children away from them?

Answer 1

I agree with the first answer.  Besides adults are way dumber than kids.  If you took the adults of the family in with the children they would never better themselves!! They would only become homelss freeloaders that still abuse thier kids!!

Answer 2

We offered a room to a 20 year old woman who has a son the same age as ours. She didn't take us up on it. We were offering it to her for like $200/mo.

Answer 3

I don’t think so though some parents can get on their feet and provide a good home for their child that is not always the case.  There are some children whose parents have serious  drug/addiction  issue I wouldn’t want a druggie in my home. Or what if the parent was physical or emotional abusive to the child.

If a parent can get on their feet they are offered programs on childcare, programs to help them kick their addiction  habits and I believe in some cases offered help to seek a job, find cheap living.  I don’t feel they need to move into a foster parent’s home. Taking care of a foster child can be hard enough, I don’t think we need to add on fostering for the adult parents of the foster children.

Now i could understand someone taking in a teen mother,

Answer 4

Sure, but how are you going to find suitable homes that can take in a whole family.  Or find people willing to work with an entire family.

We have a hard enough time finding suitable people to take in children without having a need to place entire families.

Also, as Foster Parents we are not supposed to be providing a safe and stable home for the children and let the professionals work on the counseling and family problems they may have.  Now you would want me to do the family training and mentoring for a troubled family.  Pay for my schooling and then pay me adequately for my time (because I would have to leave my full time job to do it properly) and I may consider it.  

Foster care is not the cure to all that ills some of these troubled families and I believe that, where possible, the children would be much better off with members of their own family working as foster parents but since this is not possible I`ll leave the family counseling to the professionals and leave me to watch over the children as best we can.

Answer 5

sure so the parents of my child can contine to blow meth in his face!  There are programs out there to help the parents deal with their issues and get their life back on track.  If it was safe to have the children with their parents - then CPS would have never gotten involved!

Answer 6

No.  Regular people aren't available to mentor  parents.  The children don't need to be put in the middle of their parents getting help.

Answer 7

My parents did foster care for two sets of brothers and sisters. One set the father was sexually abusing the 12 year old girl and the mother totally knew about it. The other set the (single)mother did drugs and completely neglected her children.

You're telling me, that instead of finding these children loving homes, that my parents should have worked together with their biological parents so they could be a "family" again? Right.. and then in 6 months they'd be right back where they were. In foster care.

I agree that not ALL families should be broken up. Some parents just need a good wake up call and some counseling, but unfortunately that is not the case for all.

Answer 8

I only have one thing to say to this:

The recidivism rate among sexual abusers/offenders is EXTREMELY high.  

Putting families where abuse is rampant in with other families will just get more people abused.

Answer 9

In most states including mine they always look for family first. However in many cases of chronic family poverty family members are not suitable to care for the kids by the dept standards.   Kids must have their own beds opposites can share a room after certain age and a myriad of other things. There are also cases of bio parents lieing and saying their is no family because they are embarrassed and they think they will regain custody before the family finds out.  CPS does not have the resources to look and prove if their is or isn't family. They take you at your word when you say no one is able to care for the child. Also with laws they have to keep the child in state unless adopting the child so if grand ma is one state over she can't keep the child

ETA

Also their are many times family  that for one reason or another does not want to take the kids. Like i stated earlier CPS in my state tries family first and many times family does not wan to take on the kids forcing CPS to place them in care

Answer 10

I think that both foster care AND family care should be made available in different situations.

There are cases in which a child is unsafe living in their current family situation, due to substance abuse or physical/sexual abuse.  In those cases, the child needs to be removed from the home, and a foster home is a good solution.  

However, there are some families who would benefit more from mentoring than foster care.  For example, a young teenage mother who is not supported by her own family could be offered a safe haven by a mentoring family.....a place where she could get help with child care, and finish her education, until she was able to support her baby on her own.  This might enable more young people to keep their babies.

Answer 11

Would you take a junkie into your home? Many children are placed into foster care secondary to drug abuse by parents.

How about an abuser? Would you like to place your own family at risk for being on the receiving end?

The court gives parents the opportunity to get help if they want it! Parenting classes, etc.  There really are resources out there for the small minority that just don't know how to care for their child. Usually if they are willing to learn and work hard, their children are not removed from them!

Answer 12

Although that is an excellent idea, it will not work for the fact that many people will be weary of letting in adults to their home (with fostering they have more control of the kids, with family care they will end up like a hostel!)

Answer 13

not all kids should be part of their former  family. Like the two i am raising the mom died and dad is in prison for csc 1 degree.There are a lot of kids better off with out the biological parent

Answer 14

Not for foster care but definitely for IA adoptions.

Instead of pulling kids out of homes where they are loved but the family lacks the "financial" resources because there isn't an opportunity to get a job, people should just sponsor the family instead of tearing it apart to serve their desire to have a baby. Its about what in the best interest of the child, remember.

Answer 15

There are call homeless shelters....Also there ARE mentors who help families, I forget what they're called.

You're assuming the ONLY reason the children are removed, is because of homelessness.

Would you really want someone who is abused by their parents,to have to live with them?

I think what we need to see is closer examination, to see if a child NEEDS to be removed, OR if the family just needs more resources and direction.

Answer 16

in most situations I would say yes... try keeping the family together; it really makes no sense to take a kid away if the child is going to return