The Healthcare-to-Foster Care Connection

Issues Before Care

Youth in foster care often have a complicated relationship with the healthcare system. As of this writing, the Georgia Department of Human services currently records 29,096 cases of child abuse, endangerment and neglect, and historically, about 10% of that number has been referred to foster care. Group homes often see new referrals arrive with a poor history of medical and dental care, as many families implicated in these cases usually work hard to avoid the trained eyes of community professionals.

Too often, addictive substance abuse and other destructive behaviors have been normalized in the upbringing of youth experiencing foster care, which is almost always coupled with mental wellness concerns brought on by trauma.

The system's response to the discovery of healthcare issues is usually swift and intentional, but hampered according the resources available in the vicinity of the child's placement (healthcare deserts in Georgia's rural areas often leave caregivers navigating a broadly scattered network of compatible healthcare providers). Nonetheless, finally, children receive needed care.

New Settings, New Problems

Upon entry into foster care--especially in the group home setting--youth often crash land into a new ecosystem of caregivers and health benefits, but the presence of care comes with its own set of new challenges. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far in this ecosystem of sometimes competing interests with counselors, physicians, therapists, and more providing uncoordinated input. For instance, the data shows that youth in care become subject to psychotropic medication regimens at rates far beyond their peers, with a sharp drop off in all healthcare access after aging out:

• Youth in care are medicated at 4.5x higher rates than their peers

• Normalization of healthy, restorative behaviors rarely has time to take root before youth leave care

• Youth often bounce from one placement to another with poor continuity of care, exacerbating issues above

• Upon aging out of the system, many of these young adults often go from medication overwhelm to nearly zero healthcare almost immediately due to inadequate life skill attainment during their time in care

Opportunity for Collaboration

We see solutions to these challenges affecting youth in care that the healthcare community is uniquely positioned to provide. We recently presented our observations to the South Georgia Healthcare Group, an initiative of the South Georgia Regional Commission, highlighting great opportunities for the healthcare community to connect with youth in care in a special, holistic way.

Typically, youth in care are open to relational mentoring and coaching, and are interested in careers related to healthcare and social work because of the chance to give back to children beginning the same journey they themselves have traveled. Our organization provides consulting on mentoring program implementation to help build these bridges from scratch, or help strengthen existing ones. Our Events Page also lists training events for anyone interested in offering their time and expertise for the benefit of youth in care.

We encourage healthcare professionals to seek out ways to collaborate with foster care service organizations to develop mentoring and career exposure opportunities for these high-potential youth. The onramps can be tricky to find, but we can help plug you in to initiatives such as our new pathway to healthcare support careers, helping youth earn cycle-breaking wages in high-demand opportunities. Connect with us to explore our workshops and trainings on this issue, and be a part of a powerful aspect of community transformation with us!