“Is foster care bad for child's mental health?”
One of my old friend's sons was placed in foster care because she wasn't able to take care of him (it's a long story). I'm worried about his mental health though, since he's such a bright kid. Is foster care bad for a child's mental health?
1 Answer
Being suddenly removed from any environment that you are used to is always traumatic. However, often children are placed in foster care because the situation at home was chronically not healthy either emotionally or physically, which can cause life-long consequences. Child Protective Agencies always try to place a child in a kinship arrangement first (meaning friends or family if the option is available.) Although foster care is a less than perfect system and there are some bad homes, many children in foster care begin to show improvements in school after only a few months of being in a stable home. Children in foster care need additional mental health support to deal with the traumas that they experienced with their biological families. If mental health support is available, a child that remains in the same foster home long-term has similar outcomes to other children not in the foster care system.
