|
 In many states, children who live in foster homes age out of this
system by the time they turn 18 or 21, a transition that can leave
some of them at least temporarily without access to health insurance
or unable to continue care with doctors who were treating them
before.
When researchers surveyed foster kids before they left the system,
more than half of those with symptoms of behavioral health problems
were receiving needed services, the study found.
But by the end of the follow-up, when all of them were out of foster
care, only about one third of the young adults who needed mental
health care were getting it.
“To a large extent, kids who age out of foster care and don’t get
behavioral healthcare services they need are harmed the same as
anyone else who needs services and doesn’t get them,” lead author
Adam Brown, a social services researcher at the University of
Chicago, said by email.
“However, for many former foster care youths, the outcomes can be
much worse without the family, community, and social supports
present in the lives of most people who were not in foster care,”
Brown added.
Brown and colleagues analyzed four waves of survey data from 732
youths in foster care in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
The initial surveys were conducted from 2002 to 2003 when the teens
were 17 or 18 years old. Three more waves were done when the
participants were around 19, 21 and 24.
At the beginning of the study, 68 percent of the youth in foster
care had at least one mental health problem, with depression and
addiction the most common issues, the study found.
By the end of the surveys, 39 percent of them had at least one
mental health issue. Depression was the biggest challenge, but
symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were the second-most
prevalent problem.
While about 61 percent of the youth with depressive symptoms
received services at the start of the study, only 39 percent of them
did by the end.
One shortcoming of the study is that the wording of survey questions
used to measure whether the youth received services was changed over
time, which may have led to some shifts in responses, the authors
acknowledge in Children and Youth Services Review.
[to top of second column] |
Even so, the findings add to a growing body of evidence on the
challenges foster kids face accessing care after they leave the
system, said Sonya Leathers, a researcher in social work at the
University of Illinois at Chicago who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Many youth exiting from foster care are unprepared to navigate
service systems as they struggle with basic needs like stable
housing and keeping a job,” Leathers said by email. “With this
instability, mental health needs are likely to go untreated.”
The trouble with untreated mental health disorders is they can put
these youth at greater risk for substance abuse, educational
failure, imprisonment and homelessness, said Dr. Paula Kienberger
Jaudes, medical director at the Illinois Department of Children and
Family Services.
“Children and adolescents involved in the child welfare system are
at greater risk for mental health issues than children in the
general population because of histories of child abuse and neglect,
separation from biological parents, or placement instability,”
Jaudes, who wasn’t involved in the study, added by email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1GkuEwL Children and Youth Services Review,
published online September 25, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
