Articles And News

There Is No Poverty So Great As Child Withoug A Family*

April 11, 2015

The hunger of parentless children is palpable, as a visitor to a Haitian orphanage captured so eloquently in her blog. Unfortunately, we do not have to travel to watch children who live without families beg to be held—both physically and emotionally. Children in our foster care system, who have been separated from parents who are…

Hubris

April 11, 2015

It’s been several days since a colleague alerted me to a lawsuit that has been filed in South Carolina by the parents of a child who was adopted from the foster care system. I have been unable to understand how the foster care system could have failed a child so utterly and completely. According to this report a child who…

The Complications Of Halloween

April 11, 2015

Suppose that you are a foster parent with four children in your care. One of the children is excited about going trick-or-treating. One child knows nothing about the holiday. One comes from a family that does not celebrate the holiday for religious reasons. The fourth is a new arrival who is easily frightened and who…

He Won’t Sit Still

April 11, 2015

This is the complaint of a foster mother who last month had three-year-old Jesse delivered into her care. Not only will he not sit still, he fidgets while she is trying to read him a story and gets up from the dinner table without asking. He frequently bumps into things when he wanders around the house because he doesn’t…

Adverse Childhood Experiences Revisited

April 11, 2015

Over the last twenty years we have been amassing evidence that negative experiences in early childhood have life long deleterious effects on physical and emotional health. Early maltreatment results in years of emotional pain, chronic illness, and, too often, premature death. As David Brooks reminds us the multiple lenses through which we have been able…

Protecting Young Parents

April 11, 2015

Many years ago I was asked to make a recommendation to the court about the fate of a toddler whose mother had been raised in foster care. Mother and daughter arrived at my office and immediately headed for a basket of toys. Sadly, the mother was more interested in playing with the toys herself than in helping or enjoying…

What’s A Mother To Do

April 11, 2015

A pregnant woman undergoing methadone treatment may find herself in an extremely difficult position. According to a recent article in The Daily Beast confusion, uncertainty, and disagreement among professionals may put expectant women in danger of losing their infants to the foster care system if they are considered to be drug addicted because they are receiving methadone to manage opiate…

A Well-Kept Secret

April 11, 2015

Teenagers are interested in sex. Not only are they interested, but many of them are having sex. Some of them become parents as a result; in fact, seventy-one percent of young women in foster care will be pregnant before the age of twenty-one, many of them more than once. Yet, according to a recent article…

Daily RX – Relevant Health News

April 11, 2015

This interview first appeared on Daily RX – Relevant Health News on June 4th, 2012. To view the feature in its original location, click here to visit www.DailyRX.com. __________________________________________________________ It’s a staple of mental and emotional health that you must know how to build and maintain healthy relationships with others. But foster students lack this…

Moving Day

April 11, 2015

Last Wednesday morning, the movers arrived at the office we had occupied for five years. By Friday afternoon, we were more-or-less settled into our new space. In all respects, the move from one end of San Francisco to the other went seamlessly—nothing was lost or broken; all of the furniture fit, as expected; and we…