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Foster Care
Study: Reunified Children Show More Behavioral Problems - A study, published in the July 2001 issue of Pediatrics, reports that foster children who were reunified with their parents, later showed a significantly greater likelihood of behavioral problems than children who were not reunified. Current government policy is to reunify children whenever possible. Brenda Krause Eheart -- In its Nov. 6, 2000 issue, People Magazine wrote an article on Brenda Krause Eheart, who pairs foster kids with retirees in a community called Hope Meadows, Rantoul, Ill. In 1993, Eheart began her non-profit organization called Generations of Hope and boosted it with a $1 million grant from Illinois lawmakers. She managed to buy the former Chanute Air Force training base from the Pentagon, and began Hope Meadows. Contact her at Generations of Hope, 1530 Fairway Drive, Rantoul, Ill., 61866-9900, or 217-893-4673. Aubyn C. Burnside -- Young Aubyn C. Burnside is collecting suitcases for foster children -- who typically move their belongings from place to place in trash bags. Her program, called Suitcases for Kids, is sponsored by "Families For Kids" of Catawba County, N. C. She's looking for suitcases and large duffel bags (hard or soft). Large backpacks also are accepted. "Rebirthing" Therapy and other coercive techniques: We urge all adoptive and foster parents to beware of any organization that uses a coercive therapeutic technique to help them bond with a child. Bonding with an emotionally damaged child takes time, love, patience, gentle counseling, and more time. In April, 2001, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed a law to outlaw the controversial "rebirthing" therapy that resulted in a 10-year-old girl's death. Candace Newmaker, who was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, was suffocated after being wrapped in a sheet for 70 minutes and told to force her way out. Two therapists were charged and convicted in her death. Two Utah adoptive parents were charged with killing 4-year-old Cassandra Killpack in September 2002 by forcing her to drink excessive amounts of water. The parents have said they made the child drink just 12 ounces of liquid, but Dr. Todd Grey, Utah's chief medical examiner, has said that in order to develop the brain swelling that killed her, the child must have swallowed at least 2.5 liters of water in one sitting. Parents told authorities they were following advice from a Utah therapy clinic to help bond with the child by giving her an excess of whatever it was she wanted, but the clinic's owners and employees deny that they ever recommended forced drinking. There are other coercive techniques used to supposedly help children bond. In one, a therapist lies on top of a prone child to restrict the child's breathing. In another, a therapist uses a "deep tissue massage" using his hands and knuckles to press into the child's abdomen and ribs. Such techniques, while generally not illegal, are thought by other therapists to risk causing added emotional trauma, organ damage, impaired cardiac function, and asphyxiation.
For more on becoming a foster parent, being a foster parent, or on placing a child in foster care:
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