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.

I was looking at some old paperwork and business cards, and was quite surprised to see how many psychiatrists’ information I have collected over the years. Some may wonder why someone would need to have numerous mental health contacts. While trying to find my way in the nightmare part of foster care of tracking down mental health help for my foster children I kept all the mental health contact information I learned.

When other foster parents, therapists, doctors, or anyone else share information about a good psychiatrist or mental healthcare person, you learn quickly to adsorb any information that could be a benefit in the future. Granted, today you may not have a younger child needing mental healthcare, but next week you may find yourself in this situation. You do not want to be in the middle of a crisis and find yourself calling every name in the yellow pages screaming for help. They will be thinking you are the one in need of help.

It is also helpful if your foster children feel somewhat comfortable with the mental health worker and also familiar with whatever issues the child is struggling with. This means that you may need a selection of mental health workers. Some mental health workers are not prepared to work with foster children that have complex issues.


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