The Foster Care System and Its Victims Part One and Two UPDATED with Part Three

Trauma Specialist Dr. Susanne Babbel discusses this topic in detail. Part One can be found here. Part Two talks about abuse in foster care here and is pasted below

“The “Safety” of Foster Care

Once placed in foster care, a child is not always guaranteed to be safe from abuse. In fact, Liftingtheveil.org cites a troubling statistic from one study, claiming that over 28% of children in state care are abused while in “the system.” However, former foster children I’ve worked with state that the incidents of in-foster-care abuse are much higher. Amy (name altered), an adult client who spent over seven years in the foster care system, told me that roughly nine out of ten fellow foster children she crossed paths with claimed that they had been abused by their foster parents.

She also expressed that foster children are often taught by their circumstances not to speak up and are conditioned to think abuse is “normal.” Additionally, Amy felt that it was not in their best interests to report abuse and risk being relocated, where they might be subject to yet more “unknown” abuse… and also have to endure another drastic change. She explained, “A foster child is already taught that you don’t speak up. It’s dangerous. And don’t forget that mom/dad already gave you up, so best to shut your mouth, or you could end up moving again.” While it seems like further studies of foster parent abuse are needed to gain more accurate statistics, the bottom line is that abuse happens too often.

In one recent (2010) and widely publicized case, an ex-foster child took his previous foster parent to court on sexual abuse charges and was awarded $30 million in damages. The abuse reportedly happened while he was in the California foster care system for five years in the ’90s. The accused foster parent had been allowed to foster multiple kids despite criminal records of abuse, drug use, and drunk driving incidents. He was eventually convicted of “nine counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child by force, violence, duress, menace, and fear, and seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14.” He was given a 220-year prison sentence. The private foster family agency responsible for awarding this man’s foster license shouldered some of the blame for negligent vetting and monitoring of the home. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Protective_Services#cite_note-18)

A Compromised System

During my own time working foster care agencies and in group homes, I often witnessed our agency staff become overwhelmed with the number of children they were required to monitor —not to mention the pressure of completing mountains of paperwork. The paperwork would often trump the actual visits in priority because it was required in order to keep the agency funded and our jobs intact. There seem to be incentives in place to keep children with foster families they are assigned to, which sometimes led to lenience when evaluating conditions. (Foster agencies receive money for each placement. If a child is removed from a placement, the agency can lose the commission. Although foster agencies and social workers usually have the child’s best interests at heart, these factors may contribute to a less than efficient system of properly monitoring foster homes.)

Many of the caseworkers (like myself) were fairly young, inexperienced recent graduates of psychology school putting in their time to accumulate enough hours to get their state licensing. Having little experience, we did not always know how to detect abuse or handle the enormous emotional volatility that is inherent in such a job. Other caseworkers were older adults with years of exposure to the failures of “the system” and defeatist attitudes that did not help them in their jobs. Ex-foster children I’ve spoken with reported jaded caseworkers who always seemed to “turn a blind eye,” never asking probing questions or visiting the sleeping areas of their charges.

Making things even trickier, there are statutes of limitations and other restrictions in place to prevent prosecution of perpetrators or state agencies too long after-the-fact. In Pennsylvania, for instance: “…the statute of limitations in most civil assault cases is two years from the date of the injury. If the injured victim is under the age of eighteen (18), the victim must file suit before they reach the age of twenty (20).” (According to the law firmAndreozzi & Associates, who specialize in foster care abuse claims. However, there are sometimes ways around these restrictions. They say that “One exception to the statute of limitations for sexual abuse and molestation in Pennsylvania surrounds what is known as the common law ‘discovery rule.’ The application of this rule allows victims to file suit within two years of the time: (1) they discover the injury; and (2) they discover the source of the injury. However, it is important to note that Pennsylvania, unlike many other states, has rejected the repressed memory theory as a tool to apply the discovery rule.”

Group Homes

While issues with foster care placements in family homes are one thing, state-run group homes are a whole other matter. Foster children are only placed in group homes when their behavior as a result of neglect and abuse becomes so extreme that they require a group home environment to ensure their safety (as well as the safety of others). Foster parents are sometimes not able to cope with extreme behaviors: repeated assaults on others, sexual acting-out, and self-harm such as cutting and suicidal ideation or attempts. But, as you might expect, group homes are not always the safe havens that they should be either.

Within the group home system, children are moved around to facilities with varying levels of security and structure depending on their behavior and psychological/emotional growth. A change in level often means a child is immersed in yet another strange new environment. Each time a child is moved to another level, he or she gets new teachers, new therapists, new classmates, new roommates, and a new life. Foster children who have moved multiple times often develop detachment disorder: they become unable to attach to others as a defense mechanism. Sadly, this often results in a child who is not able to form normal long-lasting relationships that are crucial to success later in life.

The occurrence of child abuse in group homes is not uncommon either, even though staff there are trained and educated to help children. In the New York Times article “Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices,” Joe Holt describes a church-sponsored residential facility he grew up in called Childhaven, in Alabama:

“There were regular beatings, sometimes with a board, sometimes with a Ping-Pong paddle, sometimes with a razor strap,” Mr. Holt said. “You had to memorize a portion of the Bible, and if you didn’t, you’d get a beating. Once I got beaten so badly I thought I was going to pass out.”

According to the New York Times article, at least two staff members at Childhaven eventually pleaded guilty to child abuse, and the staff has “long since turned over,” but have other facilities like Childhaven instituted similar safeguards?

The Phenomenon of Emotional Detachment

Foster or group home children generally lack the childhood experiences that teach other children to trust authority figures. What can seem like a lack of emotion or attachment ability in these kids may often be a veiled protection mechanism: they may remain reserved within relationships in order to protect themselves from further hurt. They might innately be aware of the sad truth that they are viewed by caseworkers and foster parents as potentially “troublesome,” and that — unlike most children — they must prove themselves to be trustworthy before they will be fully loved. This can seem like an overwhelming task for an already overly stressed child with compromised coping mechanisms. One former foster care client expressed: “What one has to consider is that foster kids are taught to not trust… so while it seems that we are detached, the truth is, often we know full well what is going on. But yes, we do have to protect ourselves, and hence, what seems like detachment to the clinical eye is simply what a “normal” individual would call “reserved.”

Update 3: “The Problems With Emancipation

The child welfare system is designed to take care of children up until they are 18 years old. In certain cases, they might even emancipate earlier. But what happens once they grow too old for the child welfare system?

The sad truth is that many grown-up foster children end up homeless and on the streets. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that up to 50% of former foster or probation youth end up homeless within the first year and a half of their emancipation. Foster children who also have disabilities (autism being a prevailing one) should, in theory, transfer from foster care or group homes into adult living facilities, but this does not always happen because of long waiting lists to get into such housing. They then have to find a way to survive on the street.

Even for a smart and capable former foster child, finding a job as an adult can be difficult without a proper formal education and college degree, which, unfortunately, is the case for many former foster children. A patient of mine, Amy (name changed), who was a former foster child, told me: “Something nobody mentions is that most kids, prior to emancipating from foster care and group homes, don’t graduate from school. Or, as in my case, truly the last formal schooling I had (apart from adult learning) was going to 6th grade. Neither in the foster home nor in the group home was there much emphasis on school. Oh, technically, you are required to go, but often, kids don’t… is that their fault?”

Amy – who, regardless of being highly intelligent, pointed out that she was not given the resources she needed to get her degree while in the foster care system – eventually pursued her GED independently as an adult. She confided to me that she was never taught the importance of education or given the correct tools to help her study. Her foster parents and social workers were stuck at a base level of operation. She indicated: “I think these foster parents and group home counselors – whether earning hours or money – have a duty to get these kids educated. I mean, the odds are already stacked against them. Without an education, aren’t they just adding ammunition to what might already be a vulnerable state? Some of the smartest kids I have ever known were in the system, and sadly, like me, were never taught the value of education or quite simply how to study, and therefore, were given up on. While I did finally get my GED, it took me years to finally get up to a proper level of reading and writing. But let me tell you, I sure could have used the help in my earlier years.”

From the point of view of “the system,” there are a few things that make it hard to properly educate foster children:

• Their home lives are often inconsistent.
• They switch schools and teachers more often than most kids.
• The impact of potential trauma on their psyches can make learning more challenging than for other kids.

The Impact of Abuse and Trauma

Abuse and trauma often can have negative impact on children. This cannot be overstated. Whether a child experiences abuse at the hands of biological parents, the child welfare system, or simply as a result of undergoing chronic change, long-term effects can (and often do) impact that child well into adulthood.

Abuse can offer obvious repercussions in the form of broken bones and critical injuries. It can impact brain development and cause learning disabilities. And it can carry long-term affects well into adulthood. Childwelfare.gov has a laundry list of long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect based on studies that included 905,000 children reported abused in 2006 alone. Some of the more sobering consequences of child abuse include:

• Impaired brain development, which can impact a child’s cognitive growth, their language skills, and their learning ability
• Physical health problems, including broad-spectrum issues that affect victims well into adulthood, like allergies, asthma, ulcers, arthritis, and high blood pressure
• Emotional consequences: low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal tendencies, PTSD, trust issues, and attachment disorder
• Mental health issues: a much higher risk for developing clinical psychiatric disorders
• Detrimental behaviors: smoking, drinking, drug use, overeating, and sexual promiscuity
• Social difficulty: a tendency toward antisocial traits and borderline personality disorders, even violent behavior
• Juvenile delinquency

The remnants of an abusive childhood can impact an adult’s ability to function in school, work, relationships, and life in general. There is seemingly no boundary to the negative repercussions of having suffered an abusive childhood. In my own work with adult survivors of abuse, I’ve seen examples of grown-up victims who:

• Lack motivation because they were conditioned to give up trying
• Are so afraid of poverty and loss that they constantly overwork themselves to avoid the looming imaginary threat of homelessness
• Subconsciously hold onto extra body weight out of a fear of not having enough to eat or to divert attention from the opposite sex
• Were never properly taught about personal hygiene
• Constantly re-enact their childhood relationships by remaining in abusive situations
• Don’t feel close to anyone
• Have extreme difficulty communicating with others

Sometimes, abuse and neglect of children can become a terrible cycle in which adults abused as children can become abusive with their own children. The negative impacts of child abuse can so grossly alter a person’s physical, psychological and behavioral growth that it may perpetuate the cycle of child abuse and keep the foster care system “in business.””
The Foster Care System and Its Victims: Part 3 An abused and compromised foster care system carries negative consequences
[Psychology Today 1/11/12 by Susanne Babbel, PhD MFT]

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