One of the biggest struggles I have with foster care is finding psychiatrists or other mental healthcare for foster children. Finding a mental healthcare person that takes Medicaid can be a chore in it’s self. I have also learned that one psychiatrist most likely will not work with all of your foster children or they may only work with set ages. Foster parents need to be prepared for a placement that may have some mental health issues. Trying to manage finding help while a foster child or the family is having a crisis is only going to make a difficult situation that much more difficult.... more

Most foster parents understand that medication is not an answer to the foster children's problems or behaviors. The truth is that you cannot begin to address or even have the children start to process their past abuse and neglect until they have some sort of control of their behaviors.

When I started foster care, I was very opposed to giving a child medication to sleep. A one year old baby girl was placed with us that was a drug baby, born addicted. She lived her first year in a crib moving from one hotel to another one without contact or being held. She had major problems and behaviors including not sleeping. She might nap for maybe two hours in a twenty four hour period. She had... more

This topic can put people on the opposite sides of the fences quickly. Over time and with experience, I have changed my mind on this subject. There is great concern on how many foster children are taking psychotropic drugs and other medications. There is not a clear cut and simple right or wrong answer to this concern.

First, I do understand there are foster children on medications that probably do not need them. Not every foster child needs medications. I have dealt with quite a few foster children without medications.

The numbers of foster children that are taking psychotropic... more

Dealing with this disorder can be challenging and create some obstacles that a parent will have to learn to work around. Another part of this that a person may not think of, is when the child gets sick, he or she have may not tell you, or react as other children since he or she does not feel pain. When Beth has a sore throat, she will start touching her neck when it gets bad and real swollen, so this will cue me that she is sick. Sadly, these children that suffer from this probably do get sicker than other children before we realize they are sick. I also had a little boy that the only way I knew he had a sore throat was after he passed it on to someone else, he did not have any different... more

There are major problems with this disorder. One problem is that when a person does not feel pain, then he or she does not realize he or she is hurt, which can be a dangerous thing. The second problem is that this disorder can lead a person to have behaviors that are more risky than others because he or she does not have the fear of getting hurt. My doctor said that everyone should be made aware of a child that suffers from this disorder. Since he or she could take a big fall and break a bone or seriously hurt him or herself, continue playing and even cause more damage to his or herself. As a parent, this alone can be a scary thought to think about.

I have seen my children with... more

There are children that do not feel the pain when they fall down and scratch their knee, when they get a bump on the head, or if they pinch their finger. An eighteen month old baby girl would go to the doctor to get her routine shots and not flinch. She fell on the corner of a brick fireplace when she was learning to walk and busted her head open. She ended up needing stitches, the doctor pushed around on the gash to see if there was any bone fragment (pretty strange if you ask me) and she did not flinch, cry or move. This is my little girl that I adopted through foster care and she does suffer with this disorder.

I have also had another foster child with this disorder. It does... more

As a foster parent you may never know if a foster child has medical issues when they are placed in your home. The foster parent can see a wide range of different medical issues. At times it can be up to the foster parent to try and find what is happening with the foster child medical issues. This could mean calling a foster child’s last school and speaking with the school nurse. A newly placed foster child states they have asthma, but the caseworker does not know a thing about it. The school nurse at his or her last school should have a record of this and can tell if the foster child received medication at school.

The foster child in care may not realize that they have a problem,... more