Better foster care yields better prospects

People who have been in foster care can often suffer from higher rates of mental and physical health problems. A study of 659 fostered children by researches from Harvard Medical School compared those going through a private system - staffed by highly-trained social workers with low caseloads and good access to quality services - to those going through the normal public system (because of a lack of spaces on the private one). Those children going through the private programme had significantly more stable placements (32.7 vs 13.3 months); were at consistently lower risk of foster parent neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse; were far less likely to suffer from depression (11.3% vs 24.3%), anxiety disorders (28.8% vs 43%) and substance-use disorders (5.1% vs 11.1%) and a lower prevalence of ulcers (7.4% vs 13%) and cardio-metabolic conditions (14.9% vs 22.6%).

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/06/03/good-foster-care-improves-mental-health-in-adulthood/2397.html