Reference no: EM133873278

Assignment:

Please read the problem statement below and construct a policy implementation by using research based sources. Please provide the following answers to the questions in the implementation.

Policy Implementation:

• What is the policy decision?
• What organization or agency must implement the decision?
• What resources (human, financial, and organizational) will the organization need to carry out the decision?
• How vague or specific does the policy direct? How conflictive is the policy to internal and external stakeholders?
• How will the agency verify that the implementation was successful?

Problem Statement

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 Sec.112 (24) was signed into federal law by the President of the United States of America over 25 years ago. Over 500,000 youth in the United States are under the temporary or permanent care of child welfare. Due to neglect, abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional), abandonment and sudden death, the children were removed from their families. Despite requiring training for foster parents to accept foster children from the federal and state level, many are left unprepared and unable to fulfill their duties due to the lack of periodic training and evaluations. This results in further maltreatment in the foster care system.

Just in 2019, roughly 50,000 children experienced a form of abuse at the hands of their foster parents. This is 9 out of 1,000 children in foster care with roughly 45% of those being under the age of five years old. Many foster parents are acquiring approval to care for children but are unequipped to care for the needs of children who have been mentally and/or physically harmed, leading to additional traumatic exposure.

Alternative Solutions

"The two most commonly used FPTs are model approach to partnerships in parenting group preparation and selection of foster and/or adoptive families (MAPPS/GPS) and foster parent resources for information, development, and education (Solomon, 4)". The current training system in Kern County provides 12 hours of basic training (online or in-person) as a prerequisite and 8 hours of training annually. By continuing this training, it will provide support and knowledge to aspiring and continued foster parents, leading to more available homes for foster child placement. With many children aging out of these homes with no additional training and procedures, they have entered adulthood with little reform to their mental health due to their experienced abuse. As limited or no change occurs, the status quo is maintained. Children in foster care are likely to have many behavioral needs that require effective parenting skills, adequate training for foster parents is vital (Solomon, 4). Providing specialized training and preventative abuse education, recertification, increased evaluations, and an increase of support from the government will help to address these issues and improve the quality of care provided by foster parents.

Proposed Solution

To rectify these issues, I recommend changing the training requirements and evaluation process extensively at the state of California level. The initial training will outline proper de-escalation techniques, recognizing child behavior issues and address and understand mental health issues among foster children. For the foster children requiring additional needs specific care beyond the basic training to reside in the home, the assigned foster parent(s) will be properly prepared with more intimate training by county specialists in-person or online. It is also recommended that the state of California implements annual training and recertification every 3-5 years. During the recertification process, negative infractions on the foster parents files will be examined by the case worker and further training will be required if necessary, prior to being recertified.

Also, I recommend prioritizing the needs of the parents as well. Offering free counseling sessions for the parents who have experienced secondary trauma or experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed. To appropriately assess their needs, the social worker will allow the parents to self-evaluate their stress levels and their competency level of care they are providing to the children on a scale. Through these efforts, the implementation of mental health support and case management support will be available for foster parents. All these efforts will assist in decreasing burnout and boost the effective service provided by foster parents and its longevity.