There are two ways to go about having foster children placed into institutions. The first one, is the care team will make a decision in what is the best interest of the foster child and if the child needs to be placed into an institution. The decision is not one person’s to make. This type of placement is when the foster child is continuing to have major issues with no improvements and things may seem to worsen. Another reason for this type of placement is when the medications are thought to be off or if the doctors think the child needs to come off all medications. This way the doctor can have a full assessment on the child and find the medication that would be best for that child if needed.

The next one is an emergency placement into an institution. This is when a child spirals out of control quickly and becomes a danger to herself or others. I have dealt with this type twice. Each foster child had a major event in their life that was their stressor and caused them to completely loss control. Even at this point a foster parent cannot admit a foster child into an institution without Child Welfare being involved and agreeing.

My foster daughter’s (age:12) stressor was she had just come back into care for the third time. Before coming to us she had been placed into a kinship placement (their biological sister) with her younger brother. Parental rights had been terminated with both children.

Her sister decided that the girl was too mouthy, and difficult but the boy was not a problem so, the younger sister was placed back in foster care once again. This was the first time that the girl was separated from her younger brother. This was hard enough for my foster daughter to deal with, but then she had to do weekly two hour visits with her brother and other biological family members was too much. This was torture for this child, she faced weekly the family that rejected her and had to watch her brother continue living the life she wanted. She could only endured the pain for a month until she complete lost it and spiraling completely out of control.

She came home from her visit Friday night in a rage that continued until the next day. She destroyed a room full of furniture, tore the closet doors off and then start harming herself. This is why she ended up in an institution.

Continued.......

More reading:

Are Bad Foster Parents Out There?

The Need For Additional Foster Placements

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