Running head: BENEFICIAL RESOURCES AND INTERVENTIONS
Beneficial Resources and Interventions for Short Term Foster Parents
Research Report
Isobel Couture
Western New England University
1
Abstract
This study focuses on the overnight program at a foster care agency and what information the
foster parents find important to know about the child and what resources might be beneficial to
be included in the program that could be available for the foster parents and the children. Data
from the five foster parents interviewed showed that trainings and support were important for the
foster parent to fully support and care for the child. The foster parents filed out a table expressing
what information they were provided with from the agency and what information they found
important. Most of the parents felt that all of the areas were important for the foster parent to
know about the child.
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to provide the foster care agency with information from the foster
parents in the overnight program, that is set in place for emergency care placements, about what
they find helpful, what resources they feel would be beneficial, and if they are being given
adequate information about the foster children and how important they feel that information is to
know. This study is relevant to social work because the information given from the study provide
the agency with information that will help improve the overnight program which would than
benefit the foster parents in caring for the foster children, which creates better situations and
environments for the foster children. The study focuses on two main points; 1) what information
the foster parents in the overnight program consider to be important to know about the child, and
2) what resources and interventions might be beneficial for the foster parents in the overnight
program.
2
Literature review
Many children around the world are placed in the foster care system. Some at a very young age,
some older, some for their whole life, and some go in and out. Foster care is when a child is
taken out of their home with their parents and placed in another home with adults who are not
their parents. The child could be removed for a various different reasons such as neglect and
abuse.
At the foster care agency that the study in this report was on, they have a program for
short term foster kids. This program is called the overnight program. Short term foster care is is
foster care when the plan for the child is to reunify them with their parent soon after they were
taken out (Strijker, Knorth, Knot-Dickscheit, 2008). The overnight program at this agency is a
program for children who are removed from their homes on a more emergency basis and need a
place to stay on a night-by-night basis. Some of the children stay a few days, but most of them
have been staying in the homes a few months. The child is picked up at 8 every morning and
dropped off at 5 back at the home every night. They have to t...
