Example Of Mental Health Of Children In Foster Children Literature Review

It is usual for children and youths in foster care to have significant health and mental health requirements. It is due to trauma that they experienced during their childhood period. Child abuse and neglect are the primary reason for placement of children in foster care. As a result of neglect and abuse children often depict physical, behavioral and emotional symptoms.
Young children between the ages of 0-5 years are likely to have a generalized fear which can manifest in many ways such as clinging to caregivers, nightmares and heightened arousal among other symptoms (Hoagwood et. al. 2001 p. 53). Children between the age of 6-11 year's experiences, loss of concentration, social withdrawal, and aggression. Children between 12-18 years show eating disturbances, rebellion at school or home, decline in performances, and trauma-driven acting out of, for instance, early sexual activities. All these symptoms are related to post-traumatic stress disorder’s symptoms as defined by the American Psychiatric Association (Chaffin et. al. 2004, p. 26).
Four medical treatment reviews for child neglect and abuse have been completed in the recent past. The primary aim of the survey done by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), was to establish a treatment that has the strongest evidence from research (Chaffin et. al. 2004 p. 29). A secondary objective was to have a general review and document the research for treatments for abused children. The procedures used focused on experimental control to the top most category that required RCTs’ evidence. In addition to the four reviews, a list of treatments for child trauma has been classified by National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
Despite the use of different criteria for the four reviews, all of them prioritized experimental control. The outcome from all of them converged to show the level of consensus among the experts in the field.

Reference

Chaffin, M., & Friedrich, B. (2004). Evidence-based treatments in child abuse and neglect. Children and Youth Services Review
Hoagwood, K., Burns, B. J., Kiser, L., Ringeisen, H., & Schoenwald, S. K. (2001). Evidence-based practice in child and adolescent mental health services. Psychiatric Services.