Also there is a lack of educating teachers, doctors offices, hospitals and recreational staff on how to recognize the behaviors that are attributed to maltreated children and what resources that could be readily available to them for assistance. The welfare system has been unable to keep up with the demand of the intense increase of the massive numbers of children and their families that are in need. And there has been a surge of the numbers of babies and children that are affected by drugs and alcohol. Also there are attempts to keep "untreatable" families together and poorly designed processes at putting ill-prepared families back together again.
The goal of family preservation and reunification in some scenarios is a concept that is could work well for some. However, these step-down plans could cause irreparable increase in trauma when children remain too long in a dangerous, unstable, unhealthy and dysfunctional environments. The more disrupted placements the child encounters, the more confusion, detachment and trauma he will experience. Which in turn can cause already chaotic behaviors even worse. .
There is a steady decline of families willing to provide foster care or adoptive homes. In the early 1980's, foster parents numbered 150,000. However, by the 1990's those numbers have shrunk to 100,000 (Delaney). What causes such a dramatic decline in the willingness of these families to foster or adopt maltreated children?.
There are several factors causing the shrinking of foster and adoptive homes. The behaviors of children are getting progressively worse and the severity of their disturbances can be clearly identified as emotionally or physically dangerous. Foster care families and adoptive parents are not adequately prepared for these alarming behaviors and diagnosis. These parents and families are not provided with the in depth information or background on the children that are placed in their care.
