What we’re in need of, is some, NEW blood, but, there’s, none! So this is going to be, a big, problem, with these children in need, not having a safe place to grow up in! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
More than Half of the Foster Parents are Over Fifty-Five, with Over Sixty-Three Percent of Foster Children Before School-Age, the Social Services are Loosening the Retirement Ages of the Foster Parents, and Scheduling the Regular Home Visits
There are over thousands of foster families here in Taiwan, because of how hard it is to recruit the new families, the foster parents are aging fast, and there’s the trends of “cross-generation fostering”. The Department of Social Welfare stated, that there’s a fifty-one-percent of the foster families with middle-age and older parents, as the foster parents became grandparents, it would make educating the young children even harder; the social workers also worried, that as the foster parents age, their stamina would decline, health deteriorating, and this may be, a hidden worry.
The social welfare unit for families estimated, that there is a fifty-one-percent foster families made up of foster parents of ages fifty-five and older, but, sixty-three percent of children needing fostering are of preschool age, the older foster parents may not be adept in caring for the younger children in need, the system is loosening the retirement age of foster parents, and, are making the scheduled visits more frequently to the homes, to ensure the quality of care that are provided.
Currently, eighty-percent of the foster care program in Taiwan is responsible by the Taiwan Fund for Children & Families, and based off of the estimates of the foundation, in 2006, the foster mothers older than fifty-five was less than ten-percent, and now, it’d risen to fifty-four percent, the C.E.O. of the foundation, He worries, that in five to ten years, there would be a huge problem in the foster care systems.
Foster Mom for Sixteen Year, with Her Own Children Helping Out
Liu is sixty-four years old this year, and she’d been a foster mom for sixteen years, looked after fourteen children, she said, the last two children she’d fostered called her “mom, but as her grandchildren were born, they’d called her “grandma” as her grandchildren had. She’d told, that she’s still quite able-bodied, with the stamina to take care of children, but, she’d taught the children in middle school, and it was harder for her, and the kids now, they don’t listen, and became harder to communicate with, that she’d felt, defeated, and wanted to back out of being a foster parent.
“I’m older, and, it’d felt, a bit, trying now!”, the fifty-nine year-old Su had sixteen years’ worth of fostering experiences, looked after more than twenty children. After her husband had passed, her daughter quit her job, and, joined in the foster line, the mother-daughter pair looked after the children in need together. She’d told, that they’d had to keep on studying, taking the courses, to not derail from the society, but the fact of her stamina reducing can’t be denied, from before, she’d taken the kids out on hikes to the picnics to “relieve” some energies, to the basketball courts, to sate, but now, her “old bones”, can’t manage all the physical activities anymore.
Su said, thankfully, she had her daughter onboard to help out, like the internet, English, or the homework assignments, she’d let her daughter take over. She said, without the new comers, there wouldn’t be enough foster families, but, as he foster parents grow older, the quality of education would surely be, impacted, she’d planned to retire from the program at age sixty-five, “it’s time to let go”.
Once He’d Taken His Foster Children to Hike Up the Hundred Tallest Peaks in Taiwan, and Now, it’s to the Zoo
Lee, and Lin, the married couple, over age sixty had eighteen years’ worth of experiences fostering, currently, there are still, two children and teens whom they’re, fostering. They’d told, from before on the weekends, they’d taken the family to hike up the mountains, or on camping trips, with their coming of age, they’d gone to the easier hiking trails or the zoo, but, the high-tech gadgets are coming at them fast, they’re afraid that they can, no longer, catch up to the trends.
The head of social work of the Taiwanese Fund for Children & Families, Chou told, that the foster parents’ growing older, their physiques, their health, and focus are all in decline, with the risk of uncertainty rising up, plus there’s the bigger need for the breather programs, it would affect the number of children placed in foster care; in the earlier times, the children in foster care are mostly from poverty stricken means, and now, there are the special needs children who are fostered, for instance, the abused, the mentally, physical handicapped, or ill, this made caretaking even more complicated and harder, and, the older foster parents may want to care for the children, but will find it difficult to, it would be hard for the families to be at their top-notch status in care.
And so, this, is the problem here, the foster parents are growing older, but the children in need of being placed in the system isn’t reduced right now, and so, there’s, this huge GAP of supply and demand, and soon, the demand will, exceed the supply of foster families available to care for these children in need, and there’s no new blood signing onto the programs, fast enough.
Life, the Obstacle Course 