The Importance Of Foster Care

Foster care is a reality for many children. At any point in time there is approximately 400,540 children in foster care with about 34% of these children spending and average stay of one to eleven months at a time with a foster family(Harden,2015). The need for foster care is crucial to help children and their families. The role of both a foster family and social worker aides the effectiveness of the care provided, it has many advantages and is also accompanied by disadvantages and issues that prevent foster care from being efficient.
Foster care provides families for children that need to be placed outside their home and away from their biological family. The role of a foster family is crucial in helping a child placed in foster care to feel safe. The fostering family should be supportive of the biological parents and refrain from any negative statements about the parents. When the time is right the family should encourage the child to visit and communicate with the biological parents. This will help to promote and encourage communication between the child and both

Placing a child with a family that is a good fit for both the child and foster family will provide a controlled and stable environment. It will present a parental influence that will help the child to feel secure and provide structure. As soon as the child has no fears or conflicts from their previous home this will allow for the healing process to begin (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p.318). Assessments and doctor appointments can be done to help determine any delays in development or language that may not have been done when the child was outside of foster care. The assessments and appointments are useful for developing plans that can be implanted to help the child to reach any unmet developmental levels and encourage positive growth. These advantages will continue to help the child to heal and put them on a