Business Deal vs. Change a Child's Life

After we listened to the accounting portion of class we moved on to listening to the social worker speak. She was an older lady that had worked with social services for a long time. And it showed. Her eyes were tired...and she looked worn down. She talked about a few cases she had on her desk just so we got a feel of what she did and how it all worked. She explained that she alone had 30 cases on her desk. A case could be a sibling group not just one child. Which seemed overwhelming to me. I mean how could she keep ALL the details of the case when she had so many to keep track of. Even worse sometimes with a sibling group they could be placed in different homes because it was hard to find foster family that would take on more then one child at a time. So if there were 3-5 siblings than that was usually 3-5 foster homes she would need to be visiting and keeping track of. She was obviously over worked but the one thing she said that day in talking about her cases was she really loved her work but most of all if she had to believe that people could change or she shouldn't be working in child protective services. She had seen many things in her career but the one thing she always hoped came out of it was that the biological parents would change and be able to keep their children. She thought families should stay together...that children did better with their biological families than adopted families.

I was really taken back by this comment. Not just because my hopes were to adopt but also I had heard some horror stories over the last few months about children and I had even been wrong in my judgement of the biological parents a few times but after all I heard I was still very judgemental about these parents that hurt their children. I didn't believe they could change. I grew up with an abuser that promised change to my mother, brother and I for many years...and he never changed. I believe once an abuser always an abuser. So when she said she had to believe people could change I thought to myself well....I guess it is good she believes that because I wasn't so sure! I guess she was better suited for a career in social services than I was because I struggled with her comment for months.

After she told us about herself a little bit she went on with her portion of the class by talking about health insurance for the child while in our home. This subject is really important for the children in the system because the children usually have not had good health care while in the homes of their biological family. There are a variety of reasons children wouldn't receive health care from their biological family such as financially the family can't afford health care or the family is uneducated that the child may need health care or the family doesn't want the abuse and neglect to be seen by a physician. So I was anxious to hear about this subject. I wanted to know how we took care of these children medically when they needed it most.

While in the system the children are covered under medicaid. There are not a lot of doctors that will not take medicaid clients because of the low reimbursement rates and the amount of paper work that comes along with one patient. However, there are a few that take these clients to ensure they have a way to be taken care of. We were told that the child is covered 100% while in our home by medicaid. Medicaid would cover any Medicaid approved doctors visits, dental needs, vision needs and mental health needs. Our job as parents would be to ensure that the child is seen by a doctor in the first 24 hours of coming into our home and then to get the child to all its appointments that are needed or required by the state.

If the child is adopted medicaid still covers the child medically until the child turns 18 in order to help out the adopted family with any future needs. I think the biggest reason they put this rule in place for adopted children was for any mental health issues dealing with the abuse or neglect the child may endured in the future when figuring out where they have come from. Also, there could be mental health issues that may arise from being adopted especially once a child starts school and begins to see what other families look like.

After learning about insurance there was another time for questions. Another woman in the group raised her hand and began to ask if as foster families we were paid directly for the medical care and then we were given the responsibility or getting the children covered by medicaid or if social services took care of it directly. At first I thought it was an odd question because I was under the impression social services took care of all of it based on the social workers information she had given us. The social worker explained to the lady it was all done thru social services and she didn't need to worry about how to get that taken care of. The lady then asked if she could be paid directly because she thought she could find less expensive coverage for the children. It was then that I figured out she wanted the cash to come to her for the health care. She wasn't interested in lower rates she was interested in more money. The social worker said that wasn't an option but asked the lady to stay after class so they could discuss her question in more detail.

My husband and I just looked at each other in shock...we couldn't believe all we had heard today about the financial aspects of the adventure. My husbands body language said it all....he was sitting with his arms folded over his chest and he just kept shaking his head. As we left that day we were once again a little more jaded about the system and who they let take care of children. We were also disgusted with these adults that looked at this as business deal and not as a way to change a child's life. The truth was we have no idea if those people became foster parents because we never saw them again....we don't know what happened when she was talked to after class because we ran out of there wondering how these people slept at night.

We just left that day and prayed they hadn't been given a child just to increase their household income.