DEPRIVATION AND FOSTER CARE

Abstract

Five years of experience as psychiatric consultant to the foster care division of an urban welfare department have led me to the disturbing conclusion that present programs of foster care are failing to meet the needs of many children who will have to remain in foster homes to the age of eighteen (Eisenberg, 1962b). The number of cases seen in the welfare department psychiatric clinic because they presented serious behavior disorders exceeded by tenfold the rate of service in community psychiatric agencies for the general child population. Although it is true that foster children are under somewhat more careful surveillance than youngsters in the general population and that social workers may be likely to seek psychiatric care sooner than many families would, it is also true that the foster care cases seen were a fraction of those referred since services were limited. Although it is not possible to determine the true prevalence of psychiatric disturbance simply from the frequency of services provided, the data nonetheless suggest a disproportionately high rate of psychiatric disability in the foster care population. In our study the disturbed foster children were contrasted on a number of salient social characteristics with the remaining children in the city and state foster care program. The disturbed children were much more likely to be illegitimate, to have come into care at a time when they were living with either a distant relative or a family friend