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Read moreSeries: May 2015 • Vol. 19, No. 2
Taking care of yourself
Being a resource parent can be one of the most important, most deeply rewarding roles in the world. It can also be one of the hardest: intense, stressful, frustrating, and immensely draining. If resource parents don’t make a serious commitment to self-care, they can quickly find themselves overwhelmed and ineffective. Because it is hard—some would say impossible—to support the recovery
Read moreSelf-care: Do it for Yourself, Your Family, and Your Kids
This article draws extensively from Chapter 8 of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s curriculum (2010) “Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents” If resource parents had a motto, it might be “children first.” Or perhaps “children and their families first.” Either would be fitting. Foster and adoptive parents and kinship caregivers do what they do because
Read moreSocial Connections and Self-Care
You’ve heard this before, but it is worth repeating: no one can do the demanding work of parenting children involved with the foster care system without a robust support system. For resource parents this system should include informal supports, such as family and friends, as well as more formal supports such as social workers, therapists, or coaches. Indeed, social connections
Read moreMy Ongoing Journey as a Foster Dad – Or, learning to be the father my children need me to beby Bob DeMarco
If I had to sum up how I feel into one word, it would be impotent… It’s taken me some time to come to grips with it, but like it or not, that’s the word. It’s a Different Kind of Parenting Like some of you, I stepped into this world of fostering/adopting at my wife’s prodding and it took me
Read moreResource Parent Self-care and Secondary Traumatic Stress
The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet. — Rachel Naomi Remen Many children in foster care have experienced trauma—events that threatened their life or sense of safety, or the life or safety of a
Read moreStress, Your Worker, and Youby Mellicent Blythe
A conversation with child welfare social workers As a resource parent, you’ve seen first-hand the effects chronic trauma can have on a child’s health and well-being. And as discussed elsewhere in this issue, your own functioning can be affected by exposure to children’s traumatic histories. But what about social workers? Unfortunately, they are also at risk for Secondary Traumatic Stress
Read moreWindow Painby Mark Maxwell, PhD
A broken porch window was a wake-up call our family needed My eyes immediately went to the broken window pane next to our front door. Justin lay asleep on the front porch bench. It was an 85-degree summer day, but he wore a long-sleeved flannel shirt and sweats. There was broken glass but, thank goodness, no blood. “Justin, do you
Read more“Self-care” CFT Meetings for Resource Parentsby Billy Poindexter
In this issue we’ve talked a lot about the stress that can come with being a foster, kinship, or adoptive parent, and about how important self-care is for resource parents. Although a lot of good strategies have been suggested, I’d like to talk to you about one you may not have considered or even heard of: a “self-care” child and
Read moreMobile App for Building Resilience in Foster Families
Helps foster/adoptive families and youth build strengths, connect to supports, and overcome common challenges Have you heard about “FOCUS on Foster Families”? Designed for foster/adoptive families and youth, this free mobile application aims to provide support for youth and those who care for them in the form of video interviews, skill-building games, and access to downloadable PDFs to help
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