PS MAPP 7: Helping Children Leave Foster Care
This class was about disruptions, dissolution, and transitioning the child from foster care. The main goal of foster care is reunification with the birth parents so we discussed how to help the child have a successful transition through communication, thoroughly explaining things to the child, helping the child prepare, updating the child's Life Book, and honoring and celebrating going home.
The most interesting discussions of this class related to disruptions and dissolutions and how to identify the signs of a disruptions in order to fix it and move forward.
Disruption: an unplanned move from one foster or adoptive home to another out-of-home situation
Dissolution: the legal act of ending an adoption, much like a divorce in marriage (Yes, this does happen and yes, we were flabbergasted that this was even an option!)The stages of disruption are very similar to the stages that lead to a divorce:
2. Child is seen as blame for all
3. Talking to friends and family begins increasing the bad feelings
4. A critical incident occurs that is almost the last straw
5. A timeframe is set for improvement or a threat is given "One more time..."
6. The child fails to meet the deadline or ultimatum and the parents decide to disrupt
PS MAPP 8: Understanding the Impact of Fostering or Adopting
Confidentiality was the big topic of this class. Information about the child should only be given on a "need to know" basis. This is going to be a difficult thing to understand as we will not be able to discuss the reason the child is in foster care with us unless it is pertinent to the situation. We are not even allowed to share the child's first name when discussing the child's behavior in a foster parent support group, however if the child wants to participate in Little League, we are allowed to share the child's name as the Little League team has a "need to know" in order for the child to participate.
We also created a family map that allowed us to see what activities we get energy from and what activities we give energy to. After we created it we had to pick a child scenario and adjust our family map accordingly to include the child in our family. The goal was to identify our strengths and identify what child would best fit into our world.
The last thing we discussed was what to do in the first 24 hours with the child.
Home Safety Inspection
Our home safety inspection was Wednesday, May 29th at 2pm. Jon was off work in time to get home and I was able to take my lunch break a little later in the day. The inspector was right on time and started in the kitchen. He went straight down the list - see page 15 of the DES Checklist. We had a minor hiccup with the fridge temperature due to Jon making some adjustments but the inspector let us turn the gauge down and he re-checked it at the end of the visit and we were in compliance! He basically walked throughout our entire house opening all cabinets and drawers and asking us where different hazardous items were stored. All smoke detectors were checked to make sure they were in working condition. My favorite part of the inspection was the emergency evacuation plan. Apparently most people fail the whole inspection because they can't follow these simple instructions:
- Identify 2 routes to evacuate from bedrooms used in care
- Identify the location of fire extinguishers
- Designate a safe meeting place outside the setting
- Maintain the plan on the setting
If you know me, you know my love for Excel. I looked at the example and realized I could use excel and got right to work. Here's my finished product:
At the end of the day we got the golden stamp of approval! We are now certified by the state of Arizona as living in a house that is safe for children!
