Supporting foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health of children

Abstract

The majority of children and young people removed from the care of their parents by the state of Victoria, Australia, reside in foster or kinship care. These children have experienced a broad range of adverse conditions and are up to 4 times more likely to experience problems with mental health than their mainstream peers. This paper draws on the perspectives of foster and kinship carers, describing the disconnection between their role as mental health advocates and their interest in early intervention in a field which is dominated by crisis and the historic marginalisation of foster and kinship carers. Thirty-one foster and kinship carers across greater metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this study through interviews and focus groups.Participants demonstrated a practical understanding of mental health and an ability to identify a range of conditions that have an adverse impact on the mental health of children and young people in their care. The paper concludes that there is a lack of systemic support and even a range of barriers that affect the capacity of foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health and well-being of the children and young people in their care. KEYWORDS carers, foster care, kinship care, looked-after children, mental health, out-of-home care

How can mental health practitioners collaborate with child welfare practitioners to improve mental health for young people in out of home care?

“…In contrast to the perceptions of foster and kinship carers (Fergeus et al, 2019), practitioners across all sectors readily identified the importance of caregiver wellbeing to young people's mental health outcomes. Involving caregivers of young people in OoHC is likely to increase young people's retention in treatment (Dorsey et al, 2014).…”

“…We acknowledge the importance of young people in OoHC as central to decision‐making about their own treatment and care (Davies & Wright, 2008). We have described elsewhere our initiatives to include young people (Herrman et al, 2016; Monson et al, 2019; Rafeld et al, 2019) and carers (Fergeus et al, 2019).…”

“…This study comprised one component of formative evaluation for the Ripple study of implementing a complex mental health intervention for carers of young people in OoHC in Victoria, Australia (Herrman et al, 2016). It complements interview studies conducted with foster carers and kinship carers (Fergeus et al, 2019) and with young people in OoHC (Monson et al, 2019).…”

Foster care for unaccompanied refugee children

“…The findings of our study indicate that, for foster carers, children's externalising with mental health problems (Fergeus et al, 2019), because if these problems are not adequately addressed, they could worsen and/or lead to placement breakdown (Hiller et al, 2020;Vanderfaeillie et al, 2018aVanderfaeillie et al, , 2018b. Such programmes could also alleviate the strain on carers, thus reinforcing their parenting abilities (Lipscombe et al, 2004).…”

“…In contrast to the findings of , the findings of this study did not unambiguously endorse the Dutch practice of cultural matching for foster placements of unaccompanied refugee children. Although (Fergeus et al, 2019) because these problems, if not adequately addressed, could worsen and/or lead to placement breakdowns (Hiller et al, 2020;Vanderfaeillie et al, 2018aVanderfaeillie et al, , 2018b. Such programmes could also alleviate the strain on carers, thus reinforcing their parenting abilities (Lipscombe et al, 2004).…”