by Alisa Greenwood | May 8, 2024 | Child Welfare Competent MH
Why Mental Health Matters During National Foster Care Month
By Binley Taylor and Faith Sharp In this guest post, Binley Taylor of FosterClub, a National Center partner, collaborates with Faith Sharp, a Lived Experience Leader to talk about how she prioritizes her mental health.
May is National Foster Care Month, let’s talk about it…
What is National Foster Care Month?
National Foster Care Month is about raising awareness and showing support for youth and teens who are in or experienced foster care. It is also a time to celebrate caregivers, families, case workers, and organizations that help young people feel safe and cared for.
Why Mental Health Matters
Mental health is an important issue for all people, but it’s especially important for young people that have experienced foster care. Going through dramatic changes, removed from your home, and not always knowing what’s next can be really stressful. Taking care of our mental health means talking about our feelings, finding ways to cope with stress, and asking for help when we need it. “Several of my friends speak to either one or both of their parents either everyday or every other day. My family life does not look like that, and so I have made a point to speak on the phone with someone I love 4-5 times a week. These calls vary from 5 minutes to 3 hours and have changed my view on life! Prioritizing connections is the best thing I have done for my mental health in years.”-LEx Leader, Faith Sharp
Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health
- Talk About Your Feelings: It’s okay to feel sad, angry, or confused. Find someone you trust—a friend, a teacher, or a counselor—to talk to about how you’re feeling.
- Find Healthy Ways to Cope: Whether it’s drawing, writing, playing sports, or listening to music, find something that helps you relax and feel better when things get tough. “Reclassifying coping skills for myself has been life changing! Food, exercise, TV, jou aling, are all healthy coping skills, but I used to think some were better than others. The reality is you need to figure out a balance between them all. Lea ing that difference is how I protect my peace.” -LEx Leader, Faith Sharp
- Stay Connected: Keep in touch with people who care about you. Having supportive friends and adults in your life makes a big difference.
- Ask for Help: If you’re struggling with your mental health, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Talk to a counselor, therapist, or trusted adult who can support you.
During National Foster Care Month, remember your experiences matter, and your voice deserves to be heard. This May, let’s raise our voices, share our stories, and spread awareness about foster care and mental health.
by Alisa Greenwood | May 8, 2024 | Child Welfare Competent MH
Small Steps, Big Dreams
Written by Arnie Eby
May is National Foster Care Month. At NFPA it is National Foster Family Appreciation Month and around the country states, jurisdictions and agencies nominate and honor a “Foster Parent of the Year.” In this guest blog, Arnie Eby, Executive Director of National Foster Parent Association and a partner with The National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services writes about what this month means to him as a former resource parent. Long before the month of May arrives, a group of individuals gather to select a theme that honors and reflects the massive undertaking resource families embark on. I am referring to those of us who are members of the National Foster Care Month volunteer team led by the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the unknown people who work year-round to salute all those individuals who step out of their comfort zones to open the doors of their homes to children who need a home when their parents are unable to adequately care for them.
Walking the Walk
Resource parents and kinship caregivers put action to their words. They step up and step in when our vulnerable populations – children and youth- require the safety and comfort of a loving home. Therefore, this year’s theme for National Foster Care Month uses action words “Engaging Youth, Building Supports, Strengthening Opportunities” to express the multi-faceted efforts families expend in helping those in their care. These action words – “Engaging, Building, and Strengthening” – are used in the present progressive tense. This is because what these caregivers do is an ongoing process – one that does not necessarily come with an end date. There are times when a child is welcomed home only for a day, sometimes a month, and, at times, the child is ultimately adopted by the resource family or reunited with their parent(s). Yes, the uncertainty is part and parcel of what foster parenting entails. Amid all the action that is undertaken lies the fact that resource parents do not know how long a child will stay with them. Is it any wonder we should salute them every day?
What the Action Words Entail
As I look at the words we selected for this year’s theme, memories come flooding in. Recollections of many small, seemingly insignificant encounters that have made a life-long impact on me and my family. While I completely acknowledge the power and necessity of appreciation events – or a month dedicated every calendar year to recognize selfless service – I also feel such events tend to make us think big. We look back, and to the future, for the bigger picture. However, in my musing, I was struck by the multitude of small, oft-overlooked things that come together to complete the mold. Do these items strike a chord in your heart too?
- Sitting on a bed, listening to a child recite their struggles that day.
- Waiting patiently for them to gather their many scattered items before an important appointment, hoping to get a precious few extra seconds to prepare them for what the meeting entails.
- Countless monotonous games of Checkers hoping that playing by their rules and losing with dignity will make them feel happy and satisfied after another hard day.
Many of these scenarios play out regularly at the homes of resource parents and kinship caregivers. These are the multitude of little things that build into a crescendo of calm and hope for the children, and all those impacted by their life.
“No action is too small, no sacrifice too little, no worry too little – it all adds up.”
These are actually the happy days, because often the crises are such that no board game suffices. My days as a resource parent are now behind me. As Executive Director of NFPA, I focus on three things: networking, educating, and advocacy. I am happy to share the lessons I lea ed while fostering – and always stress that big accomplishments are the total of many small efforts. Just as the sea holds within its depths all the tiniest water molecules, so also the heartbeat of the child welfare system beats to the rhythm of all the small actions of its players. No action is too small, no sacrifice too little, no worry too little – it all adds up. In the very action of engaging with the children and youth in foster care, resource parents and kinship caregivers engage, support, and strengthen the child welfare system.
by Alisa Greenwood | Mar 18, 2024 | Child Welfare Competent MH
Innovations in Mental Health for Youth and Families in Child Welfare
By Binley Taylor In this guest post, Binley Taylor, Director of System Change at FosterClub, a National Center partner, discusses innovations in mental health for youth and families in child welfare and how The National Center is working to make these necessary changes a reality.
The critical need for specialized mental health services
Many young people and their families struggle with mental health challenges. For families navigating child welfare, this hurdle is amplified by complex developmental trauma and the additional struggle to find support that aligns with their specific circumstances. Too often in large systems like child welfare or mental health, youth and their families are ignored, and their lived experience is not considered when formulating a solution. This leads to decisions being made without their involvement and the introduction of services that are inadequate from the beginning. This exclusion often exacerbates the mental health challenges of the family, all of which have lasting effects on the familial ecosystem.
Broadening the Understanding of and Access to Resources
“One thing that would have changed my journey is a therapist who understood trauma, someone who could have guided me and helped my dad understand how to support me better,” reflects an individual who experienced foster care. Their reflection highlights the need for mental health interventions that are uniquely tailored to address the child welfare community. The National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services (The National Center) is at the forefront of this effort, with a primary goal of providing states with the tools they need to better support vulnerable youth and families struggling with the impact of mental health.
The Importance of Collaboration and Inclusion of Lived Experience Leaders
As part of its strategy, the National Center incorporates the insights of youth with lived experience in child welfare beginning with the design of the model through roll-out and implementation. This approach ensures a deeper understanding of young people impacted by child welfare and creates a collaborative bridge between child welfare and mental health systems. This serves as the first and necessary step towards creating an inclusive system that authentically caters to the needs of youth and families involved in foster care.
by Alisa Greenwood | Feb 15, 2024 | Child Welfare Competent MH
The Importance of Adoption Competent Services
“You have to change yourself to be the parent your child needs.” Parents must have the adoption competent support (doctors, therapists, service providers, and educators) needed to better understand the “why” behind their child’s behavior and the impact of separation loss and trauma and how they can adapt their parenting to better address the unmet need.
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First, it’s never too late to pursue therapy from mental health professionals trained in adoption competency. Adult adoptees and adoptive parents who have found previous therapy unhelpful or even hurtful may be understandably discouraged and skeptical, questioning why they should believe that ‘this therapy will work when previous therapy has not.’ Therapists who are trained in adoption-competency have the experience that equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to provide effective treatment to members of the adoption constellation. Therapists who are trained in adoption competency understand how a youth’s pre-placement history and unique experience of loss and grief and complex trauma, including breaks in attachment, can impact their emotional, social and cognitive, and behavioral growth and development. The therapist considers how a child’s challenging behaviors may be rooted in fears around loss and rejection; lack of trust and insecure attachment. They then work with the child and family to understand the child’s early experiences to promote healing and family well-being. In previous treatment, families often share that they felt ‘blamed’ and ‘left out’ of the therapy.
Adoption-competent therapy is strengths-based and family-oriented. Parents won’t feel as if they are being ‘blamed’ or ‘left out’ of the therapeutic process. They are an integral part of treatment and always receive invaluable psychoeducation regarding the challenges they are experiencing with their children. In adoption-competent therapy, parents lea why the parenting approaches and behavioral interventions tried in previous treatment were completely ineffective and even harmful for children from compromised beginnings. For example, as they lea about the impact of trauma on the brain, parents are often relieved to understand that their child’s tantrums are likely driven by an inability to self-soothe (likely caused by early neglect). Parents are then receptive to learning trauma- and attachment-focused parenting skills. Adoption-competent therapy arms parents with knowledge about how adoption can impact adolescence. Parents can then provide needed support to teens to help navigate issues related to identity and self-esteem. Therapists assist parents to feel empowered and confident in communicating and working with school personnel to understand what their child needs to be able to s쳮d in school.
Being proactive and engaging a therapist with training in adoption-competency when concerns first arise in childhood can prevent problems from becoming worse. Many well-meaning parents ignore the ‘red flags’ until their child reaches adolescence and difficulties reach a crisis point. For example, intervening early when a child is first beginning to have difficulties navigating friendships or developing lasting friendships, can prevent more serious consequences in adolescence. Teens who experience difficulties in peer relationships are at greater risk for depression and substance abuse. Armed with an understanding of how early trauma and loss likely has impacted their child’s ability to read social cues and respect boundaries, parents can work together with their therapist to help the child develop those necessary social skills. A proactive approach allows families to receive guidance and support before they feel completely overwhelmed by a teen’s extreme behavior.
by Alisa Greenwood | Feb 14, 2024 | Child Welfare Competent MH
The National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services will work with child welfare (CW) systems in States, Tribes, and territories (STT) to build bridges with mental health (MH) systems to develop and train MH practitioners in issues related to separation, loss, grief, and trauma, and to develop strategies for making trauma-based culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate adoption competent MH services consistently available. This blog post introduces what technical assistance will look like for Tribes.
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Learn About Technical Assistance for Tribes
The National Center is welcoming Tribes to learn more about the technical assistance that can help either enhance or develop practice between your child welfare and mental health agencies so that children, youth, and families can have access to quality competent resources and services. While many tribes may not practice Adoption as a permanency planning outcome, the National Center is open to tribes who offer Guardianship to relatives, kin, or resource families. The National Center provides Universal Services Intensive, on-site Technical Assistance to both child welfare and mental health agencies.
What is Intensive Technical Assistance? The National Center is available to assist with on-site capacity building and creating systems change for child welfare and mental health departments/agencies so that services are focused on meeting the needs of children, youth, and families.
What are Universal Services? The National Center provides Universal Services where states, tribes, and territories (STT) can access resources and tools related to both child welfare and mental health. Use of these resources and tools are accessible on the National Center Knowledge Hub for anyone to download and review. What are other ways to use the Knowledge Hub resources and tools? Tribes can utilize these resources to develop or enhance practice through collaborative discussion or strategic planning between agencies and community stakeholders.
Knowledge Hub: Mental Health Competence: The Value of NTI for Tribes NTI is the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative. Lea more from Terry Cross, Senior Advisor from the National Indian Child Welfare Association who shares the “Value of the NTI for Tribes” as it relates to core competencies that are in the NTI curriculum. Terry shares key features of the NTI curriculum:
- Relevant to the tribal experience and inclusive of various jurisdictions
- Connects to knowledge building about child development, loss and grief, historical trauma, etc.
- Incorporates the tribal perspective in case examples and exercises
- Honors the child’s reference points of belonging with immediate and extended families, community, peers, etc.
Are you interested in learning more about the National Center? Please contact Mary Wichansky, Center Director for more information.
