Cfs Winnipeg Essay

“If grown-ups knew how it felt in there, there wouldn’t be bad foster homes.” said by an eight year old boy. Every child deserves to know the feeling of a loving family. With this in mind, love and support is what every child needs in order to get a good head start in life. It also contributes to the healthy development of the child’s relationships, self-esteem and their own positive outlook on life. But even so, in reality not every child is blessed with responsible caregivers who tend to their essential needs. Given that, Child and Family Services (C.F.S.) help ensure that families and communities provide safety and care for the well-being of their children. It is C.F.S.'s job to protect these children from abuse and neglect. When needed, they can legally remove the child from the environment and place them into foster care. However, C.F.S. is harming children by removing them from non-life-threatening environments and placing them in foster homes that could be just as harmful or in some cases, even worse.

Nonetheless, C.F.S. has somewhat succeeded in the protection of children. Foster families are carefully selected and have resources such as education, support and overall care ready for children. Once the children are placed in the foster homes, they no longer have to worry about the harmful risks to their health and safety. Furthermore, children may finally get to experience the care denied to them and develop healthy relationships. This helps children get over trust issues and assists in building their self-esteem. Lastly, not all children in C.F.S. contribute to the statistics of homelessness, drug abuse and criminal activity. Some children have lived better lives growing up within the system and have gotten more opportunities than they would have living their lives without being in the hands of C.F.S.

Regardless of that, children being withdrawn from their original home and placed into foster care tend to go through an emotionally traumatic experience that affects both their foster parents, and biological families. A great number of children are entering the foster system with complicated health and development problems and are often misunderstood from all parties involved. Speaking of which, a foster child who is repeatedly moved from home to home is often under a great amount of stress and lacks the ability to cope in a healthy way. The emotional consequences of multiple placements are harmful to children of any age, and alternating between biologic parents and foster parents often result in ongoing emotional trauma. In fact, the younger the child and the longer the separation, the greater effect it will have on the child's well-being.

Not to mention, most abused and neglected foster children are at higher risk for not forming healthy attachments to anyone. Children with attachment disorders and trust issues, often grow up to vent their rage and pain and take it out on those around them. More importantly, the results of the emotional trauma on the child end with the child developing aggressive behaviours, throwing temper tantrums, having a lack of interest, and them becoming psychologically disengaged. In the hope that such things do not happen, every effort should be made by all parties in the child welfare system to help ensure that the child goes through a positive experience while growing in care.

Secondly, statistics show that children in the foster system driven by C.F.S. are at a higher risk of homelessness, drug addiction and criminal activity. With over 49 000 foster children in Canada alone, Manitoba has the highest rate of children being placed in the foster system. Approximately 75% of children in Manitoba that are placed in care are of Indigenous descent. This is because rates of poverty, housing problems, and violence are dramatically higher especially on reserves. On the other hand, 54% of foster children complete high school and earn a diploma, 51% are unemployed, 49% of the homeless population have been within the foster system, and 84% become young parents, exposing their children to the harmful cycle of abuse and neglect. This is because once children turn 18, they no longer qualify for placement within foster homes and are left to fend for themselves. Those who age out of the foster system have little life skills which allow them to make it on their own and are usually less prepared to live independently with little government aid.

As a final point, in some cases the foster homes that the children are placed in can be as abusive or even more so than the home from which the child was withdrawn from. Given that, once a child is placed in care, they are not always guaranteed safety away from abuse. For this reason, one study shows that over 28% of children in care are abused while being in the system. However most people claim the statistic to be much higher. Evidently, there are not many statistics on foster care abuse but there are many cases involving it, which just comes to show that the abuse happens too often. For example, one case involves a woman by the name of Sally Schofield who was a foster mother to a five year old child named Logan Marr. Sally Schofield was found guilty and faces up to 40 years in prison for wrapping Logan Marr's body in 42 feet of duct tape during a "timeout" causing the five year old to suffocate to death. "The child-welfare system failed Logan Marr in every possible way," said Richard Wexler, the executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "They failed her … by … ignoring her cries of abuse and they failed her by letting her die in that foster home". Proof was given that Logan Marr was being abused but the child welfare system had done nothing about it until it was too late. Not to mention there are plenty of similar cases that share the same outcome which just comes to show that C.F.S is not doing a thorough background check on these foster parents, leaving plenty of children at risk of abuse within the system.