Background of the problem
The foster care system is an arrangement that help the youths who are unable to live harmoniously with their families by providing them with temporary care in other homes. These youths often leave the foster care after attaining the age of 18 years. The young people who are transitioning out of the foster care system have always had a challenge due to economic and social issues that accompany their long periods away from home in the placement centers. This is particularly because most are placed in these homes when they are very young and grow up until their adolescence (Goerge, 2002). As a result of their experiences, these youths stand a higher risk for poor educational results, health difficulties, and lack of stable employment, homelessness and early parenthood among others. Different organizations and government initiatives have given this issue more attention in the past few years where the future of these youths has been given serious prospects. This is because the high numbers of young people who age out of foster care system every year are exposed to lack of family and economic support. According to recent research, these numbers which may be about 25,000 are faced by economic hardships especially due to scarcity of employment (Goerge, 2002). These problems have led to the necessity of occupational therapy in the foster care systems where they enable the young people aging out of foster care to deal with these issues.
Statement of the problem
The current trend and beliefs among various people is that these youths are vulnerable even as they enter into adulthood (Collins, 2001). The purpose of this report is to provide important information on youths transitioning out of foster care especially focusing on occupational therapy. The report enables occupational therapists to gain the knowledge on the reason why young teenagers who are already in foster homes run away from these homes. This information will be of benefit to occupational therapy practitioners since they will manage to come up with effective therapy strategies in order to assist the teenagers to deal with mental and emotional struggles that they face. This will enable them to stick in these foster care systems without running away so that they can benefit from their services. In addition, the study also enables them to understand the risky behavior s and their relationship with the foster care stay. This is because these behaviors are major causes of health problems which affect these teenagers.
Objectives
The objectives of the research are to:
- Evaluate the struggles that the teenagers living in foster care face, making them decide to run away from these homes.
- Identify the strategies that occupational therapy practitioners can use in order to help the teenagers deal with the struggles, whether mental or emotional as they transit out of foster care system.
- Identify the role of the different organizations and the government in assisting the young people in their transition from foster care in order to deal with social and economic hardships.
Significance of the study
This study will be significant since it will:
- Increase the understanding of the social and economic struggles that the young people transiting out of foster care systems face.
- Increase the knowledge on the importance of occupational therapy to children living in foster care and especially those transiting this system.
- Improve literature on the importance of coming up with effective strategies to deal with problems that the youths face as they adopt to the new life out of foster care system.
The current trend in most states where the numbers of children who are being placed in foster care homes are increasing has brought the need for occupational therapy. This is because these young individuals are faced by various issues related to health, behavior and adaptive issues. There has been evidence that youths leaving the foster homes face problems once they are left on their own. As a result, the occupational therapists who deal with these children are tasked with the responsibility of educating the young people aging out of foster care systems. This is to empower them with living skills that will enable them to be successful in their lives by living independently. The occupational therapists also involve these youths in both formal and informal education. With the knowledge they acquire, they are able to make meaningful goals in life (Goerge, 2002).
Occupational therapists can also empower the young people transiting out of foster care systems by helping them to pursue their educational goals (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2008). The other problem that these young people find themselves in after aging out of foster care system is lack of consistent employment. According to most occupational therapists, the ability of an individual to develop and even maintain behaviors related to work is a life process that begins from early childhood. They also believe that by these youths taking part in various activities and work, they tend to live more healthy lives.
Literature Review
The young people who grow up in foster care systems are faced with various challenges that other young people are not exposed to. Firstly, these youths are faced with emotional and mental issues while still living in the foster homes. This is because before these children are placed in the foster care system, most have experienced neglect and abuse among other difficulties. As a result, some of these youths even end up running away from the foster care systems. This is because these young people lack the option of turning to their families for assistance since most of these families are not functional. In addition, the crises that most of them face are not solved effectively, making them engage in risky behavior (Mech, 1994). These behaviors sometimes expose them to heath difficulties. These young people end up suffering from their health difficulties due to lack of accessing the health services consistently. This is because some of the foster homes do not pay enough attention to the health issues of the children who are placed under their care.
Secondly, once these young people leave the care centers, they are confronted with the harsh reality of economic and social hardships. Due to the gap between the small wages they earn and the high cost of living, most of these young people aging out of foster care system are becoming homeless at a high rate. Studies have shown that among the high number of youths leaving the foster care system after attainment of 18 years, 13 percent of them end up being homeless. This is because most are facing underemployment where they receive earnings that are below poverty line. Comparing them with those who have grown up in normal family lives, these young people earn much less than them. In addition, the young people who are transiting out of foster care progress slower in the job market than other youths (Collins, 2001).
Conceptual practice model guiding the research project
The research in its attempt to come up with a solution of dealing with issues that young people transiting out of foster care homes have implemented two important models of research. These are the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) and practice of social justice. The Model of Human Occupation which was established by Gary Kielhofner have been utilized by various occupational therapists in explaining various issues related to involvement of occupations and how health issues among the young people leaving the foster care system come up. MOHO has a feature of being client-centered where it focuses on the needs of the individual involved, both physical and emotional needs (Forsyth & Keilhofner, 2006).
This model views occupation as a procedure that organizes the individual’s physical and emotional being by organizing his or her mind and body thus, giving the individual’s the identity he or she possesses. According to MOHO individuals pick up behaviors that they learn in association with a specific social identity. The young people transiting out of foster care homes are faced with challenges since the society around them do not have high expectations of them. This makes these individuals pick up behaviors that are not in line with the virtues of the society since they have no one to encourage them to behave in the right manner.
Young people in foster care benefit from participating in occupations that enable them be involved in community activities. This is through taking part in educational activities and work among others. This enables these individuals to develop as complete individuals due to their achievement of maturity in activities of daily living, educational and emotional life. However, some of the homes that these individuals are placed at neglect their health conditions. Studies have shown that children under foster care exhibit high rates of mental, behavioral and even adaptive problems. A large percentage of young people transiting out of foster care systems have had a psychiatric disorder at one time in their life (Hodges & Kim, 2000). As a result, these individuals are faced with health issues that affect their behaviors.
The environment that these individuals live in is not always friendly. This is because their societies do not give them the appropriate experience to acquire the necessary life skills. In addition, during their stay in foster homes these individuals sometimes lack role models in their lives (Leslie et al, 2000). This is because the study that was taken by Leslie et al (2001) showed that the individuals who had role models in their lives were those who had permanent home addresses, a good social connection and a stable employment.
The project of understanding the situation of youths transitioning out of foster care has led the occupational therapy practitioners to experiment with the model of social justice. Social justice is a process which aims at involvement of all individuals within the society in order to assist or meet the needs of all members of the society. It focuses on empowering all members of the society to take it as their responsibility to help others in order to benefit all members. This model is very relevant in the area of foster care because it removes the renowned notion of naming the children who are placed under foster care system as different from those who live with their families (Paul-Ward, 2009). In addition, there are various issues that the individuals who are placed in foster care face making them not measure up to the development of others in various areas of life (Tickle-Degnen, 2002). This is because these children are sometimes transferred from one home to another, thus; they lack a consistent environment where they can learn skills that can allow them to live independent lives. Social justice helps the society to eliminate the issues that keep off the children in foster care from the mainstream society due to various emotional and economic situations they face. The studies that have been undertaken in the last two decades have indicated that a large number of these children have difficulties as they transit from foster care systems since they lose their eligibility to get services from their respective states (McMillen & Tucker, 1999). This exposes them to difficulties like homelessness, access to consistent employment and incarceration among others.
The adoption of social justice as the model by used occupational therapy practitioners will be effective to assist these young individuals as they are able provide services that are relevant to these children. This is because in order to help these youths, any institution willing to help these individuals need to assist them to acquire independent living through improvement of educational prospects and employment results. In addition, this model allows these individuals to base their services on the needs of these teenagers in order to promote their development.
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2008). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process, (2nd ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62, 625–683.
Collins, M. E. (2001). Transition to adulthood for vulnerable youths: A review of research and implications for policy. Social Service Review, 75, 271-291.
Forsyth, K. & Keilhofner, G. (2006). “The model of human occupation: Integrating theory into practice.” In Duncan, E. A. S. (ed). 2006. Foundations for practice in occupational Therapy, 4th Edition. London: Elsevier Limited.
Goerge, R. M. (2002). Employment outcomes for youth aging out of foster care. University of Chicago. Web.
Hodges, K., & Kim, C. (2000). Psychometric study of the child and adolescent functional assessment scale: Prediction of contact with the law and poor school attendance. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 287–297.
Leslie, L. K. et al. (2000). Children in foster care: Factors influencing outpatient mental health service use. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24, 465–476.
McMillen, J. C., & Tucker, J. (1999). The status of older adolescents at exit from out-of-home care. Child Welfare, 78, 339–360.
Mech, E. V. (1994). Foster youths in transition: Research perspectives on preparation for independent living. Child Welfare, 73, 603–623.
Paul-Ward, A. (2009). Social and occupational justice barriers in the transition from foster care to independent adulthood. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 81–88.
Tickle-Degnen, L. (2002). Client-centered practice, therapeutic relationship, and the use of research evidence. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 56, 470–474.