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Home > Enhancing Permanency for Older Youth in Out-of-Home Care: A Bulletin for Professionals > Barriers to Permanency for Older Youth
Enhancing Permanency for Older Youth in Out-Of-Home Care
A Bulletin for Professionals
2. Barriers to Permanency for Older Youth Older youth in foster care face a number of barriers to achieving permanency that are specific to their age group. Recognizing these challenges may help child welfare workers seek solutions that can facilitate permanent families and connections for these youth. Policies and attitudes may not reflect an emphasis on permanency for youth. Workers in programs for older youth often note resistance among many child welfare and court professionals to spending time and money on establishing permanency for older youth, whom these professionals may consider "unadoptable." Case planning may be inadequate for permanency. The continued use of sequential case planning can slow the permanency process. When an agency waits until parental rights have been terminated before considering alternative permanency plans, the permanent family connection for a child or youth is delayed. In addition, agencies may focus primarily on providing independent living services to youth, believing that these services meet expectations for working towards permanency. While independent living services are important in preparing youth for adulthood, they are not sufficient to connect youth with permanent families. There are not enough families recruited to foster and adopt teens. Most agencies need to place a greater emphasis on identifying families who are willing to provide homes for teens. There is often a lack of focused recruitment for this group; in addition, adolescents and older youth who need families are often invisible to the community (Mallon, 2005). Youth initially may be resistant to permanency planning. Many youth show initial resistance to permanency planning that involves the termination of their birth parents' rights, because they still feel emotional ties to their families. They may fear embarking on a relationship with a new family because of repeated past disappointments. Youth may not understand the long-term consequences of not having a family to turn to as a young adult. Finally, certain older youth may be difficult to place because of ongoing behavioral issues. The court process may slow or frustrate efforts toward permanency. Even when agencies and workers are focused on permanency for youth, their efforts can be hindered by court processes that are slow or by judges who are reluctant to terminate parental rights. Judges also may not be aware of the viability of finding adoptive families for older youth. Another barrier in some cases may be the lack of a good working relationship between child welfare workers and courts.
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