Support needs of Aboriginal foster parents

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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the support needs of Aboriginal foster parents. A total of 83 Aboriginal foster parents participated in over the phone interviews that included the question “What supports would be helpful to you?” Responses to the questions were sorted by the participants and the sorted data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Five clusters emerged from the responses to the question: 1) foster care system supports, 2) specialists, 3) education through sharing, 4) cultural and community supports, and 5) recreational resource support. The clusters were compared and contrasted with the available literature.

Introduction

Aboriginal peoples in Canada are recognized in the Canadian constitution to include the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. In the 2006 Census over 1 million (1,172,790) people reported Aboriginal identity (Statistics Canada, 2008). The majority of people with Aboriginal identity are First Nations (60%). The Métis comprise about 33%, and the Inuit 4%. Between 1996 and 2006, the Aboriginal population grew by 45%, a rate almost six times higher than the 8% increase in the non-Aboriginal population. Approximately 27% of people of Aboriginal identity live on reserve and just over half (54%), who identify as Aboriginal, reside in urban areas.

Although Aboriginal peoples raised their children successfully for centuries prior to European contact, generations that followed have faced very different challenges in response to colonization. Following contact Aboriginal peoples experienced widespread loss of life due to disease as well as many government-led efforts to promote assimilation. Early assimilation efforts focused on severing Aboriginal people's relationship to the land by introducing land ownership, the reservation system, forced confinement and banning traditional practices. Aboriginal children were also taken from their families and communities and placed in residential schools starting in 1874. During the 1960s, there were large scale removals of Aboriginal children for adoption by European families (Blackstock and Trocme, 2005, McCormick and Wong, 2006).

Nationally, Aboriginal children are overrepresented in child welfare caseloads (Trocme, Knoke, & Blackstock, 2004). Fewer than 1% of non-Aboriginal children are in receipt of child welfare services, compared to over 3% of Métis children and over 10% of First Nation children (Blackstock, Prakash, Loxley, & Wien, 2005). In recognition of the overrepresentation of Aboriginal families in the child welfare system, some provincial governments have undertaken large scale reviews of policies and practices. Such efforts, such as the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in Manitoba and the National Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, have been part of new opportunities for change in the spirit of self-governance by Aboriginal peoples, including legal decisions and actions promoting the welfare of children (Trocme et al., 2004). One outcome has been the creation of specialized child protection authorities for Aboriginal families.

The majority of children who come into care receive foster care. While foster care offers the best chance for children to remain close to their cultures, communities and families, there are not enough Aboriginal foster parents to meet the demand for placements. There are also high rates of attrition among Aboriginal foster parents. While there has been considerable research on the needs of foster parents in general, there is very little on the needs of Aboriginal foster parents. In the present study, Aboriginal foster parents are asked about the support needs they have.

Section snippets

Literature review

There is a considerable literature base on foster parent satisfaction. Previous literature suggests that the factors playing a central role in foster parent satisfaction and intent to continue include training, support, teamwork, personal commitment and income. Each is reviewed briefly in this section.

Method

While initially concept mapping was used for evaluation purposes, it was later employed in the development of new programs (Cousineau et al., 2008, Sjoukes et al., 2006), theory building (Petrucci & Quinlan, 2005) and description of research constructs (Brownson et al., 2008). For example, concept mapping has been used to help groups reach consensus about the meaning and composition of a construct under investigation. When describing a new concept the responses in the clusters are used to give

Results

The final concept map appears in Fig. 1 and the individual responses with bridging indices are listed in Table 1.

Discussion

In this section, concepts described by Aboriginal foster parents in the present study are compared to the literature. Similarities and differences are highlighted.

Conclusion

In general, there was a considerable overlap between the supports identified by Aboriginal foster parents in the present study and supports identified in the literature. These similarities included identified need for recognition and responsiveness by the foster care agencies and staff, as well as respectful relationships and effective communication (MacGregor et al., 2006, Rhodes et al., 2003). Similarly, Aboriginal foster parents identified the need for formal supports such as professionals

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the foster parents who took the time to share their expertise with us. We would like to thank Candace Seymour and Cathy Wiebe. We would also like to thank Brian Ridd and Claudia Ash-Ponce. Also, thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their financial support for this work.

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