How can you honestly fix a system as screwed up as this one while bullshitting the masses into believing that all of these people, in their eyes, are holier than thou? Especially when they are always screaming out about how CPS failed that one child.
You see, your our typical foster parent recruitment campaign style of article simply tugs on the heart strings of the gullible, in the absence of factual data told in a truthful manner. This particular article adds a psychological attack that you don't usually see.
Here's the article.
Loving Foster Homes Improve Kids' Attention, Impulsivity
Foster children who are placed in stable, loving homes show noticeable improvement in symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity compared to children who get moved around a lot and live with parents who are often annoyed or angry at them, research finds."The parenting environment and the numbers of homes or stability are tremendous factors that contribute to better adjustment for these symptoms," said L. Oriana Linares, lead author of a study appearing in the March issue of Pediatrics.
My initial response was the same as it would be to any other article that promotes foster care, lies by omission and twists the truth in favor of the Child Protective Industry by talking about loving fosters, abusive parents, etc.
Then I thought for a minute.
First of all, it's interesting that such an article would be found in BusinessWeek. Of course that is simply explained by the fact that foster care is a profitable endeavor. But still this one is just a little different from the normal articles that I come across.
I assume the most obvious difference between this and the typical style of foster glorification and recruitment article is the target audience. Most articles are are written for what is called the mass market. This includes people of average intelligence or lower, especially those stupid enough to become foster parents without having a clue as to what they are getting themselves into and buying a line of bullshit. Instead, this particular article is geared towards people in the business community, and is therefore written for a target audience with a slightly higher IQ, perhaps identifying a target market for the business.
But the rules of propaganda still apply.
There is a lie by omission, which is half of these kids are probably drugged or in some other form of alternative therapy offered to fosters but not REAL parents. Of course you don't see it mentioned. There is a lie that half of these kids probably should never have been removed in the first place. You know, the usual.
There is also an element of truth which is that it is better to keep the kids in a stable loving home than it is to bounce them around from foster home to foster home. Now when you think about it, how can you honestly argue that point?
In the movie The Exorcist Father Merrin warned:
"He's a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But, he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen. Remember that, do not listen."
Pediatrics. 2010 Jan 11. [Epub ahead of print]
ReplyDeleteHealth and Home Environments of Caregivers of Children Investigated by Child Protective Services.
Burgess AL, Borowsky IW.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Objective: The goal was to describe the mental and physical health of caregivers and the home environments of children who have been investigated by child protective services (CPS). Methods: Subjects were 5299 children 0 to 14 years of age, from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being, a cohort study of children investigated by CPS. The Short-Form Health Survey was used to measure mental and physical health. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF) total and cognitive stimulation subscale scores were used to measure developmentally appropriate characteristics of children's home environments. These validated measures were compared across placement types, that is, remaining at home (investigated home), nonrelative foster care (foster care), and relative foster care (kin care). Results: Kin and foster caregivers had better-than-average mental health, but 11% to 13% of kin/foster caregivers and 24% of investigated-home caregivers had scores consistent with untreated mental illness. All caregivers had worse-than-average physical health; 25% of foster and 26% of kin caregivers had scores consistent with serious physical illness. There was no significant difference in mean HOME-SF scores between foster and investigated homes. Kin care homes of 6- to-10-year-old children were superior to investigated and foster homes. All setting types had more homes in the lowest quartile than in the highest quartile for HOME-SF and cognitive stimulation subscale scores. Conclusions: A sizable minority of children investigated by CPS subsequently live in homes with mentally or physically ill caregivers and with developmentally inadequate nurturing and stimulation. Foster homes are indistinguishable from investigated homes on the HOME-SF. Clinicians should assess the mental and physical health of caregivers and should facilitate access to appropriate resources, including parent/caregiver training programs.
PMID: 20064867 [PubMed - as
supplied by publisher]
Notice that KIN HOMES WERE SUPERIOR TO FOSTER HOMES FOR CHILDREN AGES 6-10.
Note that this was also taken from THE JOURNAL PEDIATRICS.
Note that your article from BW is pre-publication from the March issue of Pediatrics.
( Nearly worked for BW in the 6k0's.)
Now they are part of the Bloomberg empire proving that mass markets can make for mass lies.
Note KIN HOMES ranking.