Evaluating Risk Factors in Foster Care Adoption

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Are you considering adopting from foster care or becoming a foster parent? Join us to discuss this topic with Dr. Lindsay Terrell, a pediatrician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center, as well as the Clinical Director of their Foster Care Clinic. She and her husband are licensed foster parents.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The common risk factors that foster parents and those wanting to adopt from foster care need to be aware of include physical, emotional, developmental, educational, and behavioral problems rooted in childhood adversity and trauma. 
• What types of trauma are foster kids exposed to? 
• What percentage of children in foster care have been exposed to drugs or alcohol prenatally? Creating a Family’s Prenatal Substance Exposure Workshop for Parents
• Impact of trauma on physical health.
  • Foster parents and caseworkers often have little information about prior health history.
• Other common physical health issues that are common in kids in foster care that are not necessarily connected to trauma.
• Impact of trauma on mental health.
  • Those areas of the brain most affected by trauma, especially early trauma, are those involved in stress response, emotional regulation, attention, cognition, executive function, and memory. 
  • What types of behaviors are common as a result of trauma?
• Medication and over-medication of foster children and youth.
  • Research has found that the average number of psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medications prescribed were significantly greater for youth and children in foster care.
  • Children in foster care are likely to be kept on them longer than other Medicaid-enrolled children who are not in foster care.
  • What are psychotropic drugs, and why are they so often prescribed for children in foster care?
• Who has the authority to make healthcare decisions for foster children and youth?
• Sleep issues common to children in foster care.
• Food issues common to children in foster care. 
• Impact of trauma on a foster child’s education.
  • Children in foster care need educational advocates.
• Risk factors to consider for children already in the home. 
• Children can heal, and foster parents can make a difference!

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Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

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