The Professional Foster Care Program is a pilot program designed to provide care and support to female youth, 13-17 with serious emotional and mental health needs through matching them with a foster care parent who is a paid professional employed by the foster care agency. The foster care parent, through undergoing specialized training also becomes the care coordinator for the youth. The foster...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Each year, nearly 1% of US children spend time in foster care, with 6% of US children placed in foster care at least once between their birth and 18th birthday. Although a large literature considers the consequences of foster care placement for children's wellbeing, no study has used a nationally representative sample of US children to compare the mental and physical h...

OBJECTIVES This study investigates the degree of substitutability of adult foster care for nursing home care in Oregon. METHODS Using three tests, the authors determined (1) the extent to which an additional adult foster care resident in a county reduces the number of nursing home residents in that county, (2) which characteristics of residents and facilities are important in sorting resident...

Objective To test the following hypotheses: (1) Children entering foster care report more depressive symptoms and have a higher prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms than children not in care. (2) Demographic and historical data can predict which children in foster care are at highest risk for depression. Design Cross-sectional study, including a comparison group. Setting Fos...

Re-entry to foster care generally refers to circumstances in which children who have been discharged from foster care to be reunified with their family of origin, adopted, or provided kinship guardianship are returned to foster care. In the context of the federal performance measurement system, re-entry refers specifically to a return to foster care following an unsuccessful reunification. The ...

OBJECTIVE Although prior population-based studies have found that children in foster care use more mental health services than their Medicaid peers, less is known about how different experiences in foster care impact the likelihood of mental health service use. The primary aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that instability of foster care placements is associated with higher costs for ...

Over the past two decades, the foster care system experienced an unprecedented rise in the number of children in out-of-home care, significant changes in the policy framework guiding foster care practice, and ongoing organizational impediments that complicate efforts to serve the children in foster care. This article discusses the current status of the foster care system and finds: Agencies oft...

OBJECTIVE Children in foster care represent some of the most vulnerable children in the U.S. Their higher prevalence of a range of physical and behavioral health problems can lead to greater health care utilization and higher costs. However, many children in foster care have undiagnosed conditions and unmet needs. The purpose of this study was to provide a description of health services accesse...