Why Do Foster Children Have Mental Health Issues?
A foster child’s mental health issues often begin long before the child reaches foster care. Studies show that children who eventually end up in the foster care system are more likely to have been exposed to prenatal risk factors, such as exposure to drugs and alcohol, poor prenatal nutrition and inadequate prenatal care. Many foster children grew up amid poverty, parental neglect and abuse, homelessness, a home life full of domestic violence and substance abuse and sometimes parents with mental health issues of their own. Children rescued from these environments enter the foster care system poorly equipped to handle the separation, guilt and instability of being away from their families.
