Background

1
AfterCare Services Families Reuniting After
Foster Care Placement
Felecia Terry Dunson, Psy.D., Wendy Greggs, BSW,
CASAC, LEND Fellows Jenean Castillo, PhD, Wendy
Breitner, PhD, Beth Bryant, PhD, LEND
Mentors Leadership In Neurodevelopmental
Disabilities (LEND) at Westchester Institute for
Human Development (WIHD) and New York Medical
College
Background
Methods
Results
Study Design A program evaluation of WIHD
AfterCare families utilizing data collected from
self-report measures and demographic forms at 6
month intervals.
One of the biggest challenges for the Child
Welfare System is sustaining successful
reunification of families who continue to have
complex and chronic needs after children are
discharged from foster care placement.
Twenty-eight percent of children admitted into
care reentered over the next ten years (Wulczyn.
2004). Of those returning to care, almost 70
reentered within a year (Wulczyn. 2004). Given
the complexity of family functioning and the
multiple factors that must be addressed to
facilitate family reunification, post
reunification services are now considered
essential (Dougherty, 2004). According to
Dougherty (2004), services shown to be effective
to sustain reunification have a clinical services
component to provide individual, family,
substance abuse, and domestic violence treatment.
Additionally, financial support (job training,
health care, housing assistance), and support
networks (day care, respite, links to community
based services, wrap around services) are
necessary to provide comprehensive support to
these families (Dougherty, 2004). Similarly,
Dawson and Berry (2002) suggested effective
intervention strategies, such as in home
services, early intervention, concrete services,
behavioral parent training, family focused
approaches, strengthening support and community
networks. To answer this need in Westchester
County, the AfterCare program was developed at
the Westchester Institute for Human Development
(WIHD). The AfterCare program is a two year post
discharge, community based program using a family
empowerment model designed to address the
significant needs of reuniting families while
promoting the Child Welfare goals of safety,
permanency and wellbeing. The goal of the program
is to transition families to community-based
services as appropriate and to monitor families
two years post discharge using informal as well
as standardized measures. The purpose of this
study is to demonstrate preliminary findings
about the implementation and early outcomes of
the AfterCare program.
Data Form PSI CBCL
Demographics Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interactions Internalizing Behaviors
Family Background Difficult Child Externalizing Behaviors
Familys Current Services Parent Distress Problem Behaviors
Total Stress Clinical Scales
There was a significant relationship between
parent stress, child behavior and mental health
treatment. Specifically, there was a strong
relationship between reported internalizing
(p0.865), externalizing (p0.896) and total
child problem behaviors (p0.887) and overall
parenting stress. Similarly, there was a
significant relationship between parents
reported personal distress and child
externalizing (p0.675) and total (p0.709)
problem behaviors. A significant negative
relationship was found for parents involved in
individual therapy (p0.631) and reported level
of parent-child dysfunctional interactions.
Additionally, parents who reported having a
difficult child also participated in family
therapy services at a significant level
(p0.527). There were no significant
relationships found between parent stress and
substance abuse treatment, child behavior and
parent substance abuse treatment, or child
behavior and parent mental health treatment.
Parents indicated an average age of 42 years old.
Families were composed of an average of 2.2
children. 70 of the parents were African
American, while 25 were White and 5 were
Hispanic. There were more female head of
household (70). 95 of families were reported as
receiving some type of supportive services. The
43 children followed by the AfterCare program
were an average of 8.0 years old, ranging from 1
to 15 years old. 72 of the children were
identified as African American, while 22 were
Biracial and 5 were White. Contrary to the
parent population, 63 of the children were
males. Many of the children were reportedly in
individual therapy (66), Special education
(38), and recreation therapy (52).
Subjects and Setting Twenty families for this
pilot study were referred intra-agency by
clinicians at WIHD Family Program. Participants
included families who were transitioning from
WIHDs parenting program to reunification after
foster care placement between July 2005 and July
2006.
Transitioning Children Out of Foster Care Transitioning Children Out of Foster Care Transitioning Children Out of Foster Care Transitioning Children Out of Foster Care Transitioning Children Out of Foster Care
Children in Foster Care National Standard National Trends (2003) Westchester County (2005) Aftercare (2005-2006)
Exiting After 12 months 76.2 72.1 45.8 --
Average Length of Stay 15 months 31.2 months 35.6 months --
Re-entering Foster Care within 12 months 8.6 9.8 14 4.6
Data Analysis Descriptive and correlational
statistics were conducted for parental and child
demographics, parent assessment data, and child
assessment data.
Discussion
Although national standards aim to lower child
re-entry into the foster care system to 8.6 or
below, Westchester County re-entry rates were as
high as 14 in 2005. However only 4 of the
families in the AfterCare program were disrupted
in the first 12 months after reunification (1 of
20 families). This indicates that AfterCare
services have improved the successful
reunification of families after foster
care. Consistent with the literature, families
participating in the Aftercare program presented
with multiple factors such as financial stress,
parent substance abuse, and parent mental illness
that impact the ability to safely function as a
family. Demographic date indicated that many of
the families in the AfterCare program were
participating in multiple supportive services to
address these factors. Efforts should continue to
toward ensuring that all families are receiving
the clinical and case management services that
they need when transitioning out of foster care.
Data indicated specific factors that impact
parent report of parenting stress and personal
stress. Overall parenting stress and parent
distress was specifically related to child
problem behavior. Additionally parents who were
reportedly involved in individual therapy were
less likely to report difficult interactions with
their children. However families in family
therapy were more likely to report difficult
child behaviors. These results emphasize the need
for clinically based services to support families
in developing appropriate and effective methods
of coping with challenges.
Objectives
17 of the 20 parents completed a PSI (in
reference to their parenting stress) and a CBCL
(reporting on their childs problem behaviors).
None of the 17 reported high levels of personal
distress. However, 24 reported high levels of
dysfunctional parent-child interactions, 18
reported having a difficult child, and 5
reported high levels of overall parental
stress. 38 of the children were rated by their
parents as having internalizing difficulties. 50
reportedly had externalizing difficulties. 38 of
children were rated by their parents as
exhibiting overall problem behaviors.

1. To describe the characteristics of parents and
   children participating in the initial year of the
   AfterCare Program.
2. To examine the relationship between parental
   stress and child problem behaviors.
3. To examine the relationship between parental
   stress and parent substance abuse.
4. To examine the relationship between parental
   stress and parental mental health treatment.
5. To examine the relationship between child
   behaviors and parent substance abuse.
6. To examine the relationship between child
   behaviors and parent mental health treatment.

1E-06
Results