Caring for vulnerable children: Challenges of mothering in the Australian foster care system

Blythe, Stacy; Halcomb, Elizabeth; Wilkes, Lesley M; Jackson, Debra

doi:10.5172/conu.2013.44.1.87

Cited by 24 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(73 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Not unlike the biological parents, foster carers have been found to experience fnancial, social, and healthcare systemrelated challenges when providing care to children with IDD [36]. Whether foster carers of children with IDD are consistently provided with additional supports or training to assist them in their caregiving role is largely unknown, but not likely given the plethora of literature indicating foster carers are poorly supported in their caregiving role (e.g., [37][38][39][40]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Out-of-Home Care: A Scoping Review

Shannon

Wilson

Blythe

2023

Health & Social Care in the Community

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often over-represented in child protection and out-of-home care services. Despite this fact, little is known or understood about their experiences with these services. This scoping review seeks to identify the published literature about children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are engaged with child protection and out-of-home care services. Findings from the 18 studies included in this review show that these children are at increased risk of entering the child protection and out-of-home care system, with outcomes that do not fare as favourably as their nondisabled peers. This is largely due to a lack of support, training, and resources for the children, their families, and carers. Placement failure was a common theme with residential care more likely for children with greater complexity and support needs. These children are understudied, with more research needed to better understand the factors that contribute to their experiences. Greater insights into how a child protection and out-of-home care pathway can be avoided, via the provision of adequate services and supports, are also urgently needed so that fewer children are placed at risk in a system where poor outcomes are common.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Out-of-Home Care: A Scoping Review

Shannon

Wilson

Blythe

2023

Health & Social Care in the Community

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Carers have a fundamental role in maintaining children's mental health (Blythe et al, 2013). Carers provide day-to-day parenting, a safe environment, negotiate access to resources and facilitate healing through healthy attachment and adherence to treatment plans (Blythe et al, 2013;Schofield & Beek, 2005). In addition, healthy interactions with individuals, the family and the environment, can positively impact behavioural and adaptive functioning, which is associated with improved mental health (Ciarrochi et al, 2012;Henderson & Scannapieco, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carer perceptions of a specialist mental health service for children and young people in care

Eadie

Moss

Burton

2022

Developmental Child Welfare

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Children and young people in care are a key client group for child and youth mental health services. A collaborative approach to addressing the complex and long-term needs of children or young people in care is essential and carers who support these children or young people are vital team members of this collaboration. Method: This research surveyed carers over a 4-year period to gather feedback about a specialist mental health service. 277 carers responded to the Carer Perceptions Survey. Participants were mainly foster (65%) and kinship (17%) carers. However, residential workers (13%) and biological parents (5%) also responded to the survey. A thematic analysis was undertaken with responses to open-ended questions about most liked aspects of the service and ideas for service improvement. Results: Themes included support for carers, communication between carers and staff, personal attributes of staff, working in collaboration, accessibility to the service, and carer training. Carers expressed their appreciation of staff who provided support in collaborative and respectful ways and valued staff who listened to their experiences and ideas. In addition, carers expressed interest in receiving more information and training about how best to support the mental health of children and young people in their care. Conclusion: Effective mental health services for children and young people in care require clinical staff that foster respectful engagement and facilitate collaboration with carers in all aspects of care.

show abstract

“…When a child has extreme behavior problems, for example, the costs of placement stability are high, so is the emotional cost to the foster parent (Timmer et al, 2004 ). These emotional difficulties are represented by symptoms of compassion fatigue (Hannah & Woolgar, 2018 ), but also symptoms of depression (Mowbray et al, 2018 ) and anxiety (Blythe et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Mediates the Link Between Foster Parents’ Sensitivity Towards Child Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Job Satisfaction? The Role of Compassion Fatigue and Foster Parent-Child Relationship

Teculeasa

Golu

Gorbănescu

2022

Journ Child Adol Trauma

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: It is very likely that many children who enter the foster care system have experienced at least one traumatic event, and can develop symptoms of PTSS. Consequently, foster parents’ level of sensitivity towards child symptoms of PTSS plays a significant role in child development, but the link between sensitivity and several professional characteristics is not well understood. The current study aims to explain the effect foster parents’ sensitivity towards child trauma exert on their job satisfaction, via foster parents’ compassion fatigue and the quality of their relationship with the children in care. This study is one of the few to investigate foster parents’ sensitivity towards child trauma, and the direct and indirect effects on other variables. Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to test a mediating model on this sample ( N = 165) after using an online survey to collect the cross-sectional data. Results: The model produced good fit (RMSEA = 0.087; CFI = 0.899). The direct effects between variables are significant. The relationship between foster parents’ sensitivity towards trauma and their job satisfaction can be better understood with the contribution of compassion fatigue. Conclusion: Findings confirm the mediation effect of compassion fatigue and reveal more aspects of the sensitivity towards trauma concept. These results could be implemented by considering more accurate measurements for the caregiver’s sensitivity towards child trauma. The importance of considering interventions for increasing foster parents’ trauma knowledge and skills is highlighted.

show abstract

Caring for vulnerable children: Challenges of mothering in the Australian foster care system

Cited by 24 publications

References 62 publications

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Out-of-Home Care: A Scoping Review

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Out-of-Home Care: A Scoping Review

Carer perceptions of a specialist mental health service for children and young people in care

What Mediates the Link Between Foster Parents’ Sensitivity Towards Child Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Job Satisfaction? The Role of Compassion Fatigue and Foster Parent-Child Relationship

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About