What Are the Main Avenues for Support if You Choose to Foster a Child for the First Time?

In 2021, 4,586 children were adopted in Texas. While this was a decrease from the 5,270 in 2020, the number of children leaving foster care in Texas has been steadily increasing since 2016. A study from the University of Norway found that satisfaction with life among young adults relates to their placement stability during childhood. Young adults who left foster care reported relatively lower life satisfaction compared to the general population, and this is attributed to the lack of quality and continuity in the relationships they build at a younger age.
For this reason, good support from foster parents can help ensure children grow up happier and feel more loved. Becoming a foster parent is no easy feat, and you should only do it when you can guarantee stable support for your foster child. It takes a lot of hard work, but it's important to know that you won't be alone in your journey. In this post, we'll go through some important avenues for new foster parents support:

Therapists and mental health support

Children and adolescents in foster care are as likely to show mental health problems as maltreated children living with their biological parents. Interestingly, mental health is not just a problem for children in the foster care system; potential guardians may also face mental strains. Being a foster parent brings new challenges and stressors you may not preempt, which is why most adoption and foster care agencies offer mental health support for foster parents who may need it, as well as family counseling where both the parents and child may participate. Working with therapists allows you to take the necessary steps to maintain your mental well-being, so you can focus on your foster child and provide them the love and care that they need. Moreover, therapy is also found to be useful for aspiring foster parents, who may deal with unrecognized issues that stemmed from their own parents or childhoods.

Adoption specialists

Adoption is different from foster care, but both processes often require you to meet similar types of professionals. And it's possible that while you're thinking about foster care, you may come across the need to consider adoption. If this may be a potential scenario for you, adoption specialists can certainly help. They facilitate these processes for families and children, serving as educators and advocates for adoptive and birth families. Even if you’re committed to the idea of foster care, adoption specialists can further assist you through a wide range of skills they earned during sociology studies — such as counseling, conducting social research, and making comprehensive referrals to other community resources. Communicating with an adoption specialist is great because you can better coordinate with a child's biological parents to assess if you can fulfill the child's needs.

Foster agencies

Foster agencies are nonprofit organizations contracted by the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to recruit, train, and retain foster parents. They are an important step in any foster parent's journey, as they have the power to license your family for fostering or adopting. Foster agencies also work with home developers who can submit your home for consideration to DFPS caseworkers, to see if your family is a good fit for placement opportunities. Your home may be chosen based on DFPS' judgment of the needs of the foster children. Foster agencies focus on providing guidance to foster families, while the DFPS coordinates and manages the needs of a foster child's biological family members.
While help and guidance differs per agency, we at Hope Cottage provide individualized attention and offer additional resources, so foster parents in Dallas may need to have a successful fostering journey. Choosing the right foster agency depends on what services you may need, as well as how accessible the agency is to where you live.

Article written by Rhianne Juno

Submitted to Hope Cottage