Nearly all of the foster care population has experienced extreme forms of adverse early experiences in addition to repeated separations from biological and other caregivers. This directly effects a developing child’s brain development and their stress response system. The brain is experience dependent and develops within the context of an individual’s early life experiences. Chronic stress and trauma lead to adverse brain, cognitive, and psychological development (source). Cognitive theory suggests that cognitive vulnerability arises from early adverse effects that foster negative attitudes about the self in the form of schemas that are later activated when other adverse situations arise and impose on that cognitive vulnerability (source). Attachment theory states that a positive emotional bond provides a secure base for a child which allows a child to feel safe enough to explore their worlds and allows a strong foundation for development (Berzoff & Flanagan, 2011). Early experiences of attachment create templates for children for expectation for future relationship with others (source). If a child does not have a positive attachment to a least one caregiver it may have negative implications on their neurobiological development. The effects of a negative attachment leaves foster youth at risk for anxiety disorders as the effects of …show more content…
Foster youth placed in residential treatment programs may be required to participate in an individualized therapeutic treatment based on psychiatric and bio-psychosocial evaluations. Crossover youth are youth in foster care who fall under the jurisdiction of both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Circumstances from their early caregiving environments bring them into foster care and the combination of past and present experiences often lead to their entry into the juvenile justice system. Mental health for crossover youth was previously treated in psychiatric hospitals and now many of these same behavioral issues are addressed in the juvenile justice system (source). A large percentage of foster youth also receive special-education services but research shows needs are often ineffectively addressed in the child welfare systems (source). Foster youth may receive mental health services mandated through their IEP with school based mental health services (SBMH). Foster youth not in special education may receive a referral for SBMH by a teacher and an assessment follows to see if criteria for medical necessity. In addition, foster youth age twelve and older have the right to privately seek and consent to out patient mental health counseling and treatment