As soon as a child is known as a foster child, the labels start attaching: “troubled,” “problematic,” “attention seeking,” “trouble makers,” “bad”, “traumatized”.
However, anyone who has taken the time to get to know a child or youth in care agree that children in care have experienced trauma, but are full of the same goodness, joy, and capacity for love as any other child. They are children, first and foremost.
Within our foster care program, we focus on educating our staff and foster parents about trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from thoughts like “what is wrong with the child?” to “what happened to the child, which then leads to these behaviors?” By asking those questions, we can find ways to help children feel safe, supported, seen, and capable. Trauma-informed care recognizes the widespread impact of past trauma on an individual’s physicals, emotional, and mental health.
It is hard to step forward and say yes to walking alongside grief. Healing, whether physical or emotional, does not happen overnight and witnessing a child’s pain is a daunting proposition to say the least! Many folks call with interest in fostering but say things like “I don’t want one with a bad trauma history” or “I want one who wants to be here and isn’t hard.” Sadly, children do not enter the foster care system because their life has been free from trauma. At the very least, being separated from one’s loved ones is traumatic and that is usually layered over additional traumas like food and housing insecurity, witnessing domestic violence, and witnessing a parent struggling with mental health needs. Saying yes to foster care means saying yes to accepting that trauma has been part of a child’s life and will now also be part of your own.
Foster parents are not left to navigate a child’s healing journey on their own. JRI Foster Care firmly believes that a supported foster parent is a successful foster parent, and a successful foster parent can nurture a child’s healing path. In addition to JRI staff, like case managers and family resource workers, therapists play a significant role in supporting a child and a fostering household. Foster parents will learn about different kind of therapies and should be open to actively participating in therapy to support their child. This may mean attending visits or even doing family therapy to help create healthy family bonds within the home.
There are countless examples of children who have not only healed but also thrived with the support of their care team. Children do best when their caretakers support and cheer them on through their treatment. If you are ready to be part of a child’s healing, reach out. Even if you are not very familiar with therapeutic serves, remember as long as you are willing to learn more and have an open mind you might be the right person to join a child’s journey towards healing.
