Introduction
Fostering children is an important social task requiring long-term commitment, high level of responsibility, and appropriate knowledge of the specifics related to raising orphans. Such training is provided by public institutions specializing in this field. However, even these entities require corrections, since the identified child welfare organization is willing make changes to its training program. The only way to assess the efficiency of a new program is to conduct an outcome evaluation with specific predefined research questions, outcomes, outcome measurements, and methods of data interpretation. Understanding what training needs are most commonly experienced by foster parents is essential in ascertaining the most appropriate training foster parent program.
Discussion
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the changes to the parenting style of foster parents. The child welfare organization has identified three specific issues arising from the poor treatment of foster children. These problems include frequent foster placement disruptions, the inadequate quality of parenting, and worsening well-being of children. All subsequent corrections will revolve around fixing these three negative trends. The data collected at the end of the evaluation will provide the valuable information on the effectiveness of the chosen program (Management Library, n.d.). Afterwards, the child welfare organization will be able to decide whether developing a new training program was a worthwhile investment.
For the purpose of the assessment, three specific questions will be prepared. The first one is: did the frequency of foster placement disruptions reduce? The answer to this question will inform the leadership team whether the new program leads to more stability in foster families. The second question is: did the quality of services delivered by the organization improve? The answer to this question will showcase the level of satisfaction that children and foster parents experience from working with the organization. The third question is: did the physical and mental wellbeing of children improve? The answer will allow the leadership to understand whether children’s health is positively or negatively affected by the ensuing changes to the training program.
The training program has to respond to the training needs that foster parent have. In most cases, caregivers have to work with children with some mental, psychological, and even physical issues. All these specifics add further complexity to the already challenging task of raising offspring of parents that for some reason cannot or are not willing to do it themselves. Naturally, communicating with unknown children should be extremely subtle to prevent or minimize the chance of intrapersonal conflicts. Any time these requirements are not fulfilled, foster children’s psyche is compromised and requires further involvement from the corresponding child welfare organization. This is the likely reason why the institution under focus has identified foster placement displacement as a reason for developing a new training program.
Following this line of reasoning, it should be evident that raising foster children requires knowledge of children’s psychology, development, subtle forms of communication and other nuances that cannot be handled without proper training. The study by Hebert and Kulkin (2018) has identified seven distinct areas, in which foster parents report the need for additional training. These include: mental health diagnosis, expectations of foster parent roles, managing challenging behaviors, cultural diversity, trauma, grief management, engagement of birth families, helping foster children adjust to the new home, sexual abuse, and child development (Hebert and Kulkin, 2018, p. 5). It is reasonable to suggest that the same training areas should serve as the basis for outcome assessment of the new training program.
The specific outcomes to be evaluated will be based on the assessment of the participating foster parents’ knowledge of all ten areas identified above. The first outcome is the ability to spot mental health symptoms and accurately diagnose a psychiatric condition. The second one is the knowledge of the specific duties that the organization places on foster parents. The third outcome is the ability to handle disruptive children’s behavior. The next one is the knowledge of the culture that foster children hail from. The fifth outcome is the ability to identify trauma symptoms in children. The sixth one is the knowledge of ways of approaching grieving children and helping them overcome their loss. The next is the ability to facilitate foster children’s period of adjustment to new living conditions. The eight is the knowledge of strategies of communication with birth families. The ninth outcome is the ability to spot symptoms of previous sexual abuse. The final outcome is the knowledge of stages of child development.
In order to measure the entirety of foster parent competence, three different outcome measurements will be implemented. The first instrument is a checklist, which is most appropriate for obtaining general information. Its strength includes the ability to assess overall competence due to the presence of specific data points that can be measured in quantities. Its weaknesses are the inability to assess one’s practical skills and the surveyor’s ability to guess a correct answer. The second instrument is documentation review, which will assess foster parent’s ability to record observation. The strength of this outcome measurement include the ability to acquaint with a foster parent’s viewpoint and compare it with the actual child’s behavior. Its main weakness is the lack of quantifiable data that could be calculated. The third instrument is a case study, which will showcase how foster parents approach actual complexities. The primary strength is that participants can show their practical skills, which is not covered by other measurements. The weaknesses are time consumptions and lack of objective quantitative data.
The most appropriate research design is a mixed methods approach, since both quantitative and qualitative data will be available. Completed checklists and documentation, as well as observations of case study completion will serve as methods of collecting data. All data will be organized into two separate categories: skills and knowledge. Checklists will provide the quantifiable data, which will allow supervisors assess the participants’ knowledge of training areas. Documentation reviews and case studies will provide qualitative information, pertaining to foster parents’ skills. The subsequent analysis will incorporate the overview of all ten training areas, where each item will be given either a quantitative evaluation (for instance, the percentage of correct answers) or a qualitative assessment (for example, a proficiency scale). Combined together, these indicators will allow the supervisor assess how prepared a person is for foster parenting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, common training needs identified by research serve as the basis for outcome evaluation of a new training program. Participants’ performance in each of the ten training areas will provide the essential data for outcome evaluation. Checklists, documentation reviews, and case studies will serve as instruments of outcome measurement, as well as methods of data collection. Based on the type of data collected, it will be organized into the categories of participants’ knowledge and practical skills. The ultimate result of the evaluation will provide the supervisor with an accurate assessment of a person’s readiness for foster parenting.
References
Hebert, C. G., & Kulkin, H. (2018). An investigation of foster parent training needs.Child & Family Social Work, 23(2), 256-263. Web.
Management Library (n.d.). Basic guide to program evaluation (including many additional resources). Web.