Permanency Tip of the Week: Is the Perfect Diagnosis the Most Important Issue?
If we just get the right diagnosis, then everything will make sense and the child will start turning around his / her social, emotional and behavioral functioning – right? I often hear caregivers and service providers repeatedly ask what it the child’s diagnosis as if labeling the child will clear up all the other unresolved issues. Clarifying the child’s mental health condition is important; however for children with complex histories of chronic trauma, abuse and neglect – finding the ‘perfect’ diagnosis can prove to be challenging to say the least. Let’s make sure that we balance the need to clarify the mental health condition with the critical need of providing trauma informed care and support to the child and the caregivers because if these people are not cared for and supported, then the correct diagnosis is likely to be provided to a child who just lost their placement in a family home.
Permanency Story of the Week: Kimberly’s Story
Kimberly and her three brothers were taken into custody when their mother was arrested for drugs. To prevent a foster care placement, their 70-year-old grandmother stepped forward, but with a limited income she had no resources to care for four troubled teenagers. Kinship Center’s “Family Ties” program helped the grandmother with emergency assistance, resources and referrals, counseling, support groups, and legal assistance so that she was eventually able to have permanent guardianship of the children.
Current Permanency Related Articles:
The Best Places to Work for Adoptive Parents: See Which Companies Made the DTFA List
The good news is that some companies are stepping up and offering more generous adoption benefits to their employees, including offering financial assistance. Today, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption released its Top 100 list of Adoption-Friendly Workplaces. Companies applied for a spot on the list, reporting their maximum amount of financial reimbursement and weeks of paid leave for families who adopt.
When Adoptees Uncover Their Medical History
Most of us take it for granted: knowing which medical conditions run in the family. However, for many adult adoptees, that health history is a blank. Adoption documents with scanty summaries of “non-identifying” information often bring more questions than answers.
Grandparents who are raising children need more support
Currently, about 2.7 million grandparents in the United States are responsible for raising their grandchildren. Many of these grandparents live below the poverty line. Information Gateway Resource: Resources for Foster Parents and Caregivers/For kinship caregivers
Trauma Doesn’t Tell Time
Many frustrated parents regretfully feel as though all of the years that their child has spent in their safe, loving home has not made much of a positive impact on the child. This can leave parents feeling bewildered and incompetent. When I talk with parents about how their child’s behaviors are being driven by their earliest life experiences, many are overwhelmed by that idea that everything they have done to provide a safe and loving family has not helped their child let go of those earliest traumas.
Child Welfare Journal Special Issue: Families Affected by Substance Use
CWLA with the support of the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) just released the two-volume Child Welfare journal special issue: Families in Child Welfare Affected by Substance Use with guest editors, Nancy K. Young, Ph.D. and Julie Collins, LCSW. In honor of the advancements made since the release of CWLA’s 2001 special issue of Child Welfare which put a spotlight on parental substance use disorders among families in child welfare, including those involved with dependency courts, CWLA and the NCSACW have compiled the lessons from many of those efforts into this two-volume special issue of Child Welfare.
Don’t Give Up on Us… Parenting Traumatized Children
“Parenting traumatized children is traumatizing. It affects everyone living in the home and as parents and professionals, we have to acknowledge and address that reality.” — Allison Cooke Douglas. Allison’s recent blog “Don’t Give up on Kids like Charlie and Moms like Me” is full of candid realities and was one of the most widely read of Attachment and Trauma Network’s blogs this fall.