Therapeutic Foster Care: Becky's Story

1906 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of abuse on childrens development

Becky’s Story This is the story of Becky, an 11 year old, African American, female client who has been placed in Therapeutic Foster Care. Becky describes her traumatic experience of losing her parents in a bad, bad storm. Becky’s verbal account of how her parents died is a wild fantasized story and inaccurate. She uses the word ‘bitch’ regularly, has frequent night terrors, acts out aggressively toward foster siblings, lies, is experiencing night terrors, and is excessively attached to her foster father and case worker named Emily. Becky has explained that sometimes she freezes which is an emotional and physiological response to the trauma she has experienced. Emily, Becky’s case worker, is an experienced worker but is having some personal …show more content…

One person being traumatized in this case is the child client, Becky. Becky’s interests are not being served by her case worker in a professional manner. The worker is obsessed with Becky to the degree that she spends more time than is needed with Becky in that she visits Becky when she calls with a crisis on an average of 3 to 4 times per week. The duration of these visits is extensive. Becky is a trauma survivor. Van Der Kolk (1991) reintegrates Kardiner’s five principal features of PTSD which list: (1) persistence of startle response and irritability, (2) proclivity to explosive outbursts of aggression, (3) fixation on the trauma, (4) constriction of the general level of personality functioning, and (5) atypical dream life, (para. 4). These trauma tenets are readily visible in Becky’s challenging behavior(s) and fantasized cognitive expression of how her parents …show more content…

d.) co-dependency is a psychological condition in which someone is in an unhappy and unhealthy relationship that involves living with and providing care for another person (such as a drug addict or an alcoholic). But this condition can be applied to any person who is heavily involved with another person such as a case worker to their client. Co-dependency is a disproportionate psychological/emotional reliance on another person who requires support due to any type of illness. It can be described as a relationship addiction. Co-dependent people have a greater tendency to enter into relationships with people who are emotionally unavailable or needy, (Psychologist Anywhere Anytime, n. d.). Self emotional sabotage is the result. At first appearance, Emily is engaging in a co-dependent relationship with her client,

Show More
Related

  • The Need for Change: The Harmful Effects of the Foster Care System

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chronic abuse and neglect is a huge part of the foster care system. According to the Children's Rights website, “Nearly 700,000 abused and neglected children will spend time in foster care in the United States this year.” Many children find themselves being looked after by a social worker, and eventually into the arms of a new family. The authors of Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults state that “More than half a million American youth currently [are] in foster homes due to child abuse and neglect,” (Tyler, Kimberly A., and Lisa A. Melander). This is a very terrifying statistic. It’s hard to think that there are that many children in foster care, let alone that over half a million are in the system because of child abuse and neglect. Some have even dealt with abuse before, during, and after foster care (787). This leads me to my first point; if foster care is so great, why are children still having to deal with abuse once they’ve been placed in foster care? Why are children like Krystal Scurry being raped and killed by those who are supposed to be offering better living conditions (Ambrose, Jeanne). Why are little children like Joshua Lindsey being beaten to death by their foster parents (1)? Who is re...

    Read More

  • Child Welfare Worker

    1722 Words  | 4 Pages

    The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual cases in which children dealt with physical and mental abuse from their families that caused them to end up within the system. Also, some of these children had issues in adapting to foster and adoptive families based on the issues they faced earlier in life. As we have learned earlier in the course, the violence that a child experiences early in life has an overall affect on the person they become as they grow into adulthood. When children deal with adverse childhood experiences, they are at a higher risk for abusing drugs and/or alcohol, increased likelihood of abusing their own child or spouse, higher rates of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior, along with several other issues throughout their lifespan.

    Read More

  • Renee Heikamp Case Summary

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    No matter what age an individual is, society automatically deems a person to be an adult once they have a child. Unfortunately, Renee dealt with a lot of isolation, neglect, lack of emotional, physical, psychological support that would have helped her successfully transition into a new chapter in her life. Renee was treated like an independent and competent adult when in reality, she was in serious need of many support systems to educate and support her. As a social worker, Angie Martin’s actions within her practice created an ethical dilemma when she failed to maintain the best interest of her client, Jordan. Angie was expected to fulfill her role as a social worker by playing a vital role in coaching and educating Renee on how to care for Jordan. If there were frequent scheduled appointment in place, there would be enough evidence from Angie’s file on Jordan and Renee alone to decipher who should have been responsible for the death of Jordan. Frequent visits to the young mother and her child would have given Angie the opportunity to provide the courts with enough documentation to understand the case thoroughly to make a conviction, in needed, without dropping charges and dismissing the

    Read More

  • Antwone Fisher Case Study Summary

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    While in Cleveland, Antwone experienced many negative community influences. As a foster child, he was placed in a low income/high street crime area (Washington, 2002), which is typical of the majority of foster placements (Shook et al., 2009). While growing up in his second foster placement, Antwone’s friends often bullied him. Also, foster care social workers were not attentive to their charge.

    Read More

  • The History and Progression of the Foster Care System

    2496 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...t with a child in the foster care system. This paper gave me the opportunity to learn the positives and the negatives as well as more details about the little parts of the foster care system that I didn’t know existed. Even though my focus is to help the child and think about their best interest, this paper showed me that the parents, both biological and foster, are another important factor that helps the children. It made me realize that I will need to meet the parents and work with them to make a plan that fits their life. I will need to figure out what issues they feel are important to fix and how to get to those solutions. Foster care is a complex system that will challenge me daily if I enter the into this specific field but even if I work with children in a different environment I need to be aware that children come from all different types of backgrounds.

    Read More

  • Another Place at the Table: Synopsis

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    The foster care system, then as now was desperate for qualified homes. Kathy and her husband had become certified foster parents, she was a certified teacher, and they had empty beds in their home. Their phone soon bega...

    Read More

  • History and Overview of Foster Care in America

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.

    Read More

  • Generalist Intervention Model: Bobby Little's Reactive Attachment Di

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ordinarily, social workers would work with the client to prioritize problems and create goals. In this case, the problems will be prioritized with the foster parents and Bobby’s caseworker. After a meeting with the caseworker and foster parents the following goals were identified and prioritized: receive treatment for reactive attachment disorder, join a group or a club at school, invite a friend over for a play date, and seek out comfort when distressed.

    Read More

  • Essay On Foster Care Ethical Dilemma

    1660 Words  | 4 Pages

    Addressing the needs of children in foster care has been an issue that has tried to be addressed in many ways. In 2001, approximately 300,000 children entered the foster care system, with the average time spent in placement equaling 33 months (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d.). Statistically, the longer a child is in the foster care system, the greater number of placements they will have, and instability increases each year (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d). I recently read a novel by a girl who was placed into the system at age two, and by age 12 she had already experienced 14 different placements (Rhodes-Courter, 2007). Stories such as this one are not uncommon in the foster care system, especially if the child is a member of a sibling group or

    Read More

  • Foster Care Uncovered

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    In order for a possible successful future to take place, an appropriate selection of the caregiver must take place (Blythe et. al 88). Whenever an inappropriate foster parent is given responsibility over a child, all sorts of issues for the parent and child are created that could have been easily avoided. Foster care agencies must select foster parents that are completely capable to care for the health and safety of their new kids (Blythe et. al 88). This means that the foster parents must be able to supply all of the child’s essential needs so that they may be a valuable citizen in society one day. Research has discovered that foster parents will experience more anxiety and stress when compared to adults in their surrounding communities (Blythe et al. 88). This is directly because the foster parent was incapable of being a sufficient parent for the foster child. Since every child is special and unique in their own way it makes sense that the foster p...

    Read More

  • Reunification In Foster Care

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (No. 16, 2007) states that about one third of children put into foster care for maltreatment are eventually reunified with the biological parent. This survey also found that African American’s were less likely to be reunified, and in children age seven months to ten years, boys are more likely to be reunified than girls (NSCAW No. 16, 2007). Many studies have been done of reunification of foster care cases and many show slower rates for African American families when compared to Anglo

    Read More

  • Foster Care

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of

    Read More

  • The Daniel Pelka Serious Case Review

    1723 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the court case the judge said that lead social worker Gunn Wahlstrom was “naïve beyond belief”. This report brought over 68 recommendations to make sure cases like this did not happen again. The recommendations included putting the child first and the parent’s second. “Jasmines’ fate illustrates all too clearly the disastrous consequences of the misguides attitude of the social workers having treated Morris Beckford and Beverley Lorrington as the clients first and foremost” (London Borough of Brent, 1985,p295). The social workers in Jasmine’s c...

    Read More

  • Abuse in Foster Care

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    “About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.

    Read More

  • The Needs of Our Society's Neglected Kids Discussed in Fisher's Finding Fish: A Memoir

    2458 Words  | 5 Pages

    Social agency and the court authorizing the placement, and caregivers are responsible for the continuing monitoring to ensure that the child in placement receives adequate care and supervision (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009, p.275). Services for children in foster care are a teamwork effort of the different parties involved (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009). Unfortunately in Antowne’s situation the agency and the court system failed him because although he was removed from his mother, the abuse and neglect continued. The systems involved did not provide the safety net Antwone needed.

    Read More

More about Therapeutic Foster Care: Becky's Story

Open Document