Foster Care Pros And Cons

The article is entitled “DCFS wards languish in psych hospitals, shelters, detention: audit” by Duaa Eldeib. The article was about the child welfare system and how children are being in the system much longer than they should because the agency does not have a foster care placing for them. It was stated that the delay in placement was due to scheduling visits and long wait lists. It was also stated that children who were in psychiatric hospital were they much longer than they needed to be because they had nowhere else to go after discharging.
The audit reports showed that some DCFS workers were not completely filling out paperwork and the caused a delay in placement. However, some of the children did not have placement because some of them would runaway causing the foster parents to not accept them back in. Which in turn limited the available foster care placements. When DCFS got audited it brought a lot of their problems on the surface such as paperwork, lack of placement causing an over crowd in the hospitals and juvenile detention centers.
This article relates to current reading in many ways. In the reading it talks about the foster care system and how foster care became a long

-term experience for many foster children. It was reported that seventy percent of foster children were in foster care for more than a year (Karger & Stoesz, 2014). Both the article and reading stated that the foster care system lost track of foster care child. This was due it being an over abundance of children in the foster care system.
The author the article wanted to bring awareness about the welfare system.

She wanted society to see how the DCFS workers are and what they are not doing to properly getting children placed in homes. She point out keynotes that emphasized that the reason that some of the improper placing is happening is simply because workers aren’t doing their job. They also worked with too many systems causing work to go missing. The article do not touch basis on family reunification which could possibly be the reason why DCFS workers are putting children in mental health hospitals and making them stay longer than they are needed. The author wanted the audience to know that the “children are suffering and there is a chronic shortage of placement for children in the foster care system” (Elieib,

2016).
My personal belief to this article is that children should not have to suffer in uncomfortable environments for extended periods of time. Though it may it be safer for them to be in the foster care system, I believe that DCFS should work on family reunification for those parents who are willing to work to get their children and for the children who want to be home. Being in the foster care system can be more traumatic than being in an “unsafe home”. After reading the article, and how it stated that sometimes children are in they system for much longer than they need to be is very frightening. Some children develop a mental health condition causing another stressor. Instead of resulting to removing them from the home first, I believe there should be other alternatives. Also, with the DCFS workers, I believe they should be audited more often that way it will push them to do their job more thoroughly and efficiently. Half doing the job is the result of why so many children are still in the system. They should also use one system for paperwork so that everyone is on the same page at all times.
I believe my reaction is consistent with the social work values, because I believe that I will do everything that aligns with the integrity of the client. When working with children, it is important to be honest and it is important to keep their files in a safe area where its not only confidential but can be accessed if needed.