eTopical Precious Finds
Lorina Troy experienced one of the most devastating events a parent can go through in 2015: her children were removed from their home and placed in foster care. Lorina had two sons, one four years old and one five months old. The five-month-old, JJ, had been having issues with vomiting a lot and had a somewhat enlarged head. This eventually led to a misdiagnosis of child abuse and the child welfare agency removing the children. It took 5 months to regain custody of her sons and two and a half years to get JJ the correct medical diagnosis of Benign External Hydrocephalus, a condition where cerebrospinal fluid builds up in the cranium.
The separation was traumatic for both the parents and the children. Lorina only got to visit her children twice a week for two hours at a time. Their four-year-old lost 20 pounds while in foster care. Both of her sons seemed depressed and missed home. And Lorina’s sons are the only children to have negative experiences.
Many of America’s child welfare systems are badly broken and children can suffer serious harm as a result. Some will be separated from their siblings. Others will be bounced from one foster care placement to another, never knowing when their lives will be uprooted next. Too many will be further abused in systems that are supposed to protect them. And instead of being safely reunified with their families, or moved quickly into adoptive homes, many will languish for years in foster homes or institutions.
There are nearly 443,000 children currently in foster care in the United States. On average, children remain in state care for nearly two years and 8% of children in foster care have been there for five or more years. Only 32% of foster children live in relative foster family homes. And while most children in foster care live in family settings, 23% live in institutions or group homes.
As the public policy pendulum swings back and forth between family preservation (keeping children with their biological parents) and protecting children by placing them in foster care — most experts now agree that the best thing to do is try to leave them at home if at all possible and provide good services to help the family cope.
If that’s not possible, the next best solution is to have family members or nearby foster parents take the kids in, and at the same time provide a group of professionals (a therapist, a pediatrician, a social worker, a tutor) to help the kids and the adults. This is called “wraparound services” and has been working well in pilot programs in this country and in others, like England. This is designed to prevent a child from falling through the cracks, which happens all too often when one over-burdened social worker is the only one responsible for the safety of a child.
But what happens to children that spend time in the foster care system? Some foster children experience multiple placements. In some cases, eight or more. That’s eight homes that they move into and out of. And just consider, that means they lose not just adults and other kids with whom they are establishing a bond, but friends, schoolmates, pets. Foster kids can also suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at almost two times the rate of returning veterans. And PTSD can mimic a lot of other mental illnesses, and it can manifest as nightmares, flashbacks, fight-or-flee responses, anger outbursts, and hyper-vigilance, among other symptoms.
Those who have been in foster homes and either adopted, returned to parents, or aged out are likely to suffer serious mental health consequences. They are four to five times more likely to be hospitalized for attempting suicide and five to eight times more likely to be hospitalized for serious psychiatric disorders in their teens.
Despite ambitious and expensive public and privately funded pilot programs in communities around the country, and despite the heroic efforts of think tanks, community organizations, foster and adoptive parents, mentors and some members of the religious community, there is no national approach or policy regarding child welfare in this country.
Lorina and her family are trying to heal from the trauma of separation, legal battles, and financial loss. She has become an advocate for families like hers that have experienced devastating results from a child’s misdiagnosis. She has lobbied lawmakers in Texas, California, and Washington D.C. to change laws on getting second medical opinions and the role of Child welfare systems in instances like these. Lorina says, “Our strength came from our faith, our prayer, and the love and support of family and friends. But we went through the most challenging events of our lives, and it has strengthened us.” She has now written a book, titled “Miracles of Faith,” that goes into the details of her family’s journey through the medical and legal systems and how their faith saw them through it all. It is available directly through the publishing company, Westbow Press, A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan.
