Resilience is a popular buzzword in health circles these days. But as two speakers with extensive experience on the issue told journalists this week, it's a far more complex issue than media accounts commonly suggest.
Can parenting classes help end America’s disgraceful child-abuse epidemic?
Studies show that children who live with grandparents or other relatives typically fare better than children in foster care, but at what cost? Many say they are ill equipped and burnt out trying to be social workers, nurses and therapists for their vulnerable charges.
In California's Sacramento County, black children die at twice the rate of white children. The Sacramento City Council recently approved $750,000 for a county-led effort to lower the high death rate by connecting families with gang violence prevention, foster care assistance, health care and more.
Families in the foster care system are assigned case workers. These are social workers whose job it is to work closely with everyone involved.
For years, the percentage of Native Hawaiians in the state’s foster care system has significantly exceeded their share of the overall population of the state’s children. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser delves into the underlying causes and potential solutions to the problem.
Rhode Island doesn’t have enough foster families to meet a growing need. That’s one reason the state's child welfare agency places a higher percentage of kids in group homes than almost any other state. Officials acknowledge the problem, but recruiting new foster families has been tough.
Social workers at Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families say they have too many cases to really make a difference in children’s lives. The agency is already facing criticism for other problems, including one of the nation’s highest percentages of foster children in group homes.
Children who experience abuse or neglect–or even the stress of poverty—can have serious health problems later in life. That’s one of many challenges for children in Rhode Island’s child welfare system.
Earlier this year, an expert panel called for the closure of L.A. County's Welcome Centers for kids awaiting foster placements. But the real problems have more to do with a lack of foster homes and chronic underinvestment in programs that can keep kids from needing foster care in the first place.
