New Mexico News
| HEALTHBITS - N.M. Kids Need Good Families |
| Posted by () on May 21 2008 at 6:40 PM |
Peter Miller, a California pediatrician who wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2000 statement on foster care, estimates that at least 90 percent of all foster families fit into the “excellent” category, whether they're caring for traumatized but otherwise normal children or physically or mentally handicapped children. Training for foster families is not standardized across the country, so knowledge of child development and healing the inside of a child — the real work of foster parents — may be incomplete. However, as Dr. Miller also points out, the level of knowledge of natural parents is also often incomplete — we don't license families to have children.
One of several readers who responded to my last column on child abuse wrote, “I am writing you today in regards to your article in the Albuquerque Journal, which was very offensive to foster parents ... My family and I have devoted nine years of our lives to caring for New Mexico's children who have psychological, neurological, and behavioral problems. This includes children like Lucy [the pseudonym I gave a hospitalized child I cared for] who have been put in the hospital by the hands of the people who created her ... I have cared for children who have been removed from meth labs and are covered with eczema from head to toe. Children arrive at my home at all hours of the night; they have no clothes, have not eaten and are filthy. They are scared and feel isolated; they have been removed from whatever horrible situation has happened to them and are safe for the moment.
“(You have no right to make) your comments about ‘less than adequate foster homes.' What about the hundreds of children who are tucked in every night by a loving foster mom? What about the foster dad that coaches his foster son's baseball team? What about the foster family that goes on vacations together? In an ideal world there would be no need for foster families because moms and dads would not beat their children beyond recognition, they would not become trapped in the dark world of drug use and all that goes with that ... In an ideal world I would not have a house full of drug-exposed babies who in the beginning just hold on by a thread, lifeless and trying to withdraw. They would have been loved from the womb and cared for. They would grow up to be productive citizens and caring individuals. But this is not an ideal world ...
“Your comments did not assist in the effort of recruiting ‘more than adequate foster homes.' You have disrespected those in the community who thanklessly and namelessly step up to the plate every day to make sure a child is safe and loved. That is my job, and I hope that the next time you care for one of our Lucys that you watch as the foster parent picks the child up from the hospital, holding back the tears as they try to process what has been done to this baby. I hope that you recognize that what you have done is helped to heal her body, and as important as that is, the real work begins when she leaves you.”
After re-reading what I wrote, which my editors also read, I realize that it would be easy to read my column as having been disrespectful of the many wonderful people who provide foster care to needy children. I apologize. I had intended to note that abused children may have a good outcome if everything turns out all right. At the other end of the spectrum are children who are abused and then fall into one or more foster homes where the foster parents are not as caring as my correspondents must be.
Foster care is not a trivial problem. The AAP estimates that there are between 500,000 and 800,000 children in foster care at any time.
Almost none of them is in situations like the Eldorado, Texas, children who have made the news in the past few weeks: They come from families such as my correspondent describes, stressed economically or by drugs or alcohol or other behavioral health problems.
My correspondent is also correct in saying we should do as much as possible to encourage caring people to be foster parents. The Web site of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (www.cyfd.org/foster.html) notes that 2,500 children every day in New Mexico are in need of foster care. Foster families must “be healthy, 21 or older, able to provide space for a child, New Mexico residents, willing to attend parenting classes, willing to undergo a home study and committed to caring for and loving children.” Compensation is provided, but hardly anyone does it for the money; one of my readers wrote that she gets about 50 cents per hour. The job is vital to so many children's well-being. Hurrah for all those in this real world who are willing to be good foster parents; they are the heroes who make such a difference in the lives of children like Lucy.
Lance Chilton, M.D., is a pediatrician at the Young Children's Health Center in Albuquerque, associated with the University of New Mexico. He is happy to hear from those with questions at 272-9242 or lancekathy@yahoo.com.
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