Abstract
Properly implemented, foster family care may represent a uniquely appropriate placement/treatment alternative for young children with pronounced or dangerous sexual behavior problems. A few programs have reported preliminary but promising results with such children in fostering environments specifically designed to address their special problems. This study details the salient components of one such program that has proven successful over the past six years with most of thirty youthful clients referred to it facing few alternative placement options. Rankings by program staff and program parents of the relative importance of ten program components to client success are reported, and updates on previously published outcomes with the first six clients to enter the program are offered. Subjective but important “lessons learned” by staff and parents about working with this difficult population in the fostering environment are also discussed.
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Notes
The words “offend/offense” and “re-offend” are used here simply in reference to sexually inappropriate client behaviors and to the subsequent repetition of those behaviors, respectively. They are used for the sake of continuity with the earlier study and are not intended to otherwise characterize the clients or to imply judicial interventions with them.
References
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Acknowledgments
The Intensive Program was mounted in partnership with the Forsyth County Department of Social Services, and was initially supported by the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust, both in Winston-Salem, NC. The authors also thank program staff John Thacker, Leslie Brown, Tammy Deitz-Hall, Jil Meadows, and Steve White for their continuing work in a still new area, Kimberly Porter for her significant contributions to the original treatment protocol, and particularly the program families who serve this special population of children.
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Robert J. Jones, Mark A. Ownbey, Julie A. Everidge, Bonnie L. Judkins and Gary D. Timbers are affiliated with
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Jones, R.J., Ownbey, M.A., Everidge, J.A. et al. Focused Foster Care for Children with Serious Sexual Behavior Problems. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 23, 278–297 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-006-0048-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-006-0048-7