Fostering Consultancy Services
Foster care support
I am able to provide valuable support through my first-hand experience working with hundreds of foster parents and adoptive parents. I can help train case managers to interact with foster parents and vice versa to ensure the best possible outcome for the children.
In addition, I can advise on services for children with behavioral problems and improve services related to dispensing psychotropic medication.
DCFS Processes
Departments need the most help with retaining employees, improving recordkeeping systems, finding foster homes and behavior aides, and providing quality services to children with problematic behavior.
Improving and maintaining relationships between foster parents and caseworkers is crucial for foster parent satisfaction. Parents are often unable to contact the caseworker when they need to, which is a big problem because quality, timely communication is key to foster parent satisfaction and retention. Responsive and clear communication facilitates engagement and commitment.
All too often, the relationship between parents and case managers is marred by infrequent communication and mixed messages, which promotes negative views. Negative communication can lead foster parents to question their roles or even withdraw completely. We need to work on improving collaboration based on reciprocal trust. My experience can play a pivotal role.
Public speaking
As professionals in the field of foster care, it is our duty to inspire. We shouldn’t focus on parents’ poor choices that led to their children going into foster care. Instead, we should aim to raise awareness and solve the problems with the foster care system.
When teens "age out" of the system without support from adults or with limited connections, they face a higher risk of unstable housing or homelessness, lack of job training opportunities, lack of adequate education, limited access to health care, and health problems.
Foster parents need more support from the community, which needs encouragement to intervene. Community members can tutor, babysit or simply ask how they can make foster parents’ lives a little easier.
Another issue that has to be addressed publicly is the overregulated system. It has too many rules and stakeholders. Ordinary tasks like playing on a team or getting a driver’s license require extensive approval processes and paperwork. Too many people are trying to control foster children’s lives.