No home, no health care may await ex-foster kids

No home, no health care may await ex-foster kids
Tue Oct 9, 2007 1:29pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/healt...96291920071009

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After leaving foster care, many children end
up homeless, without adequate access to health care, warn researchers in
a report published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine.

"It makes no sense," write Dr. Peter J. Pecora and Tiffany Washington of
Casey Family Programs, Seattle, in a commentary, "to spend tens of
thousands of dollars to care for young people during childhood, only to
ignore their developmental needs and abandon them as young adults."

Each year, about 20,000 of the 550,000 children in the U.S. foster care
system are released from the system due to age, Dr. Margot B. Kushel, of
the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues note in their
report.

These youths have high rates of drug and alcohol use, unplanned
pregnancies, and mental health problems, they point out, and are at risk
of becoming homeless. It's estimated that about 40 percent of homeless
adults between 18 to 20 years old spent their childhood in the foster
care system.

Between 2002 and 2003, Kushel and colleagues interviewed 749 young
adults ages 17 or 18 still in the foster care system in Illinois,
Wisconsin or Iowa. Through follow-up interviews conducted with 643 of
these kids one year later, they found that 45.7 percent were still in
foster care, while the remaining teens had left the system.

A little more than 14 percent of youth who had left the foster care
system had experienced homelessness. Roughly 39 percent had unstable
housing arrangements, meaning that since leaving foster care they had
moved three or more times or had spent more than half of their income on
rent.

Moreover, the team found "high rates" of poor access to health care
among all emancipated youth and experiencing homelessness significantly
increased the odds of being uninsured and having unmet health care needs.

Kushel's team found that more than half of emancipated foster care youth
were uninsured. The rates ranged from about 46 percent of the stably
housed ex-foster care youth to 77 percent of those who experienced
homelessness. By comparison, roughly 30 percent of young adults in the
general population report an episode of being uninsured.

Overall, 22 percent of emancipated foster youth reported an unmet need
for medical care, with up to 41 percent of those with homelessness
having unmet health care needs, compared with 12 percent of young adults
in the general population. Overall 12 percent of emancipated youth had
fair or poor health status.

Kushel and colleagues conclude that "strategies to improve health
outcomes among emancipated youth should address both their lack of
health insurance and their risk of housing instability and homelessness."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, October 2007.








CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...