Foster Parents Essay

Introduction
Taking on the role of a foster parent is no easy task, children in foster care have often experienced trauma in their lives creating additional needs compared to the average child. These needs have the potential to take an emotional toll on foster parents leading them to compassion fatigue or burnout. However, the need for foster parents is great. Foster care was created with the intention of reunification in mind so that children could safely return to their biological families when Child Protective Services deemed the household a safe place for the children. Until that time children are placed in foster homes where, within recent years, the average length of stay in foster care has been increasing for the children (Brown, 2008). Although the length of the placement itself isn’t an issue the additional toll the extended time period takes on foster parents is. Evidence has proven that it is challenging to retain foster parents especially after their first year (Fees et al., 1998, p. 348). Unfortunately social workers within Child Protective Services frequently have high turnover rates because of this the case managers that remain are often overwhelmed by the caseloads, due to underfunding of the programs (Meyers, 2002). This limits the case manager’s ability to effectively support foster parents as they care for a child. This review of the

This research is intended to inform professionals on the best-practice for working with foster parents by discovering what their strengths are and how they can best utilize those skills to prepare for their role as a foster parent. The main question explored is: how can compassion fatigue be prevented in foster care families? To gain understanding this study will look at the strengths these families have and what has contributed to being effective foster