Neglecting Mental Health Care in the Foster Systems Imagine growing up in a home where it is normal to feel unsafe and unsure of what will happen day to day. When waking up, it is normal to hear screaming or worrying about the possibility of being abused. Many children face this reality daily. Imagine a child waking up and wondering about the next meal. This child may have to attend school in dirty clothes, with no access to clean water to bathe. These are just a few of the issues that some children face. It seems like a great idea to remove the child from these situations. The number one priority for the foster system is to remove children from any physical danger or neglect they experience. Once they are removed, they deal with being placed in a strange place, still wondering about their next meal or a place to sleep at night. Even though the foster care system provides children with support for their physical needs, it fails to provide adequate support for their mental and emotional needs. The foster care system was designed to help children have a chance at a better life. It was created to help abused, neglected, or orphaned child in a temporary …show more content…
Any mental or emotional problems these children have will only grow. Helen Minnis, Kimberly Everett, Anthony J. Pelosi, Judy Dunn, and Martin Knapp (2006) state, “Childhood problems appear to predict difficulties in adulthood: a third of adults who have been in long-term foster care reported feeling under strain, dissatisfied with life or lonely” (p.1) At the age of 18, when the children “age out”, they have little support and experience a higher number of homelessness and unemployment than children who were not in foster care. (Zlotnick, Tam, & Soman, 2012) These children need to feel supported in order to grow up and become a healthy, functioning