Nowadays, there is an acute issue of how one can serve the best interests of children when their parents cannot. It should be clearly realized what resources and opportunities are available for a child who suffers from their family’s disintegration, especially in the context of the national drug epidemic that has been inherent to the region of Appalachia to the greatest extent. In her book, Wendy Welch reveals the crisis that hit the social services sphere of the area. She highlights the compassion and optimism that motivates care professionals to make a change within the scope given. The author also exposes the system’s dismal facts via the human experiences of service workers, stepfamilies’ parents, and the kids themselves. It seems that Welch points out two crucial problems under the current circumstances – the underestimation of the value of the social workers’ services and the flaws of the national system involved in the adoption dimension from the perspective of the incentives. The below discussion will be dedicated to the exploration of the latter issues through the prism of Welch’s Fall or fly: The strangely hopeful story of foster care and adoption in Appalachia.
Welch utilizes the tools of journalism and narrative to tell the real-life stories of the social service providers, adoptive and foster parents, adult adoptees, and foster adolescents. The stories she collected are factual, but the identifiable details are omitted to protect the privacy of her informants. Welch (2017) holds conversations in a multistate area she calls “Coalton” (p. 11). The perspectives of different people, programs, and advocacy organizations from both urban and rural areas ring true throughout the book. Many experts provide an honest and realistic view of societal projects that fall short yet nonetheless hold out promise. Welch deftly mixes viewpoints to portray the contrast between optimism and misery in the system in desperate need.
Welch commends the social service providers for their diligent efforts on behalf of the kids involved in the child protection system. Seeking the ideal foster home that will take a needy child, who mostly comes from harsh conditions, is a continuous challenge. Social workers now face heavy responsibilities due to the epidemic of substance misuse, and there are also fewer suitable foster families available (Welch, 2017). In this regard, it should be noted that foster youth is aware that they are being tested with each placing in a household and that their chances of getting adopted decrease as they age. It is also noteworthy that many of these young people aged out of the service subsequently decided to take on foster parent responsibilities themselves to provide other kids with the possibilities they were never given.
The stories in the book often mention the unique difficulties faced by foster parents. The youngsters are guarded and perhaps deceptive to protect themselves because they have repeatedly been moved from family to family. They frequently have not had the chance to understand many of the fundamentals of family life that mothers and fathers take for granted – cleanliness and housework, for example. The bulk of the foster families that adopt children has altruistic motivations, while there are other reasons as well. Unfortunately, some do so in exchange for the most opportunistic of rewards: state funding for the children’s maintenance.
In the context of the latter statement, Welch argues that neither the general public nor politicians are getting the whole story appropriately. Her study is significant at articulating the conflicting system of “incentives” that frequently cause the state to mistrust family purpose and the grounds why so many families do not trust the state processes. In particular, there are therapeutic classifications that are “more than triple the stipend for regular foster care” (Welch, 2017, p. 72). They not only make difficult-to-place children more desirable, but they also make it more preferable for the system to label them as ones who need therapy. The replies from the families who care for such children reveal an obvious lack of developmental and self-care choices for parents. They, in turn, deal with the burden of extensive healthcare, educational, and psychological services for children.
Welch draws attention to the inherent conflicts that exist between social care providers, foster parents, and the courts as she draws to the book’s close. Despite everyone’s best efforts to help the children, these groups frequently come into conflict, particularly when the youths’ biological parents are involved (Welch, 2017). She advocates for effective coordination amongst child welfare agencies through greater interaction, interaction, and sharing of information in order to secure the optimal outcomes for the children.
To conclude, the above discussion was dedicated to the problems highlighted in Welch’s book related to the situation of child adoption in the region of Appalachia. It was found that the two biggest issues identified in her work are the underestimation of the social care providers’ work and flaws within the state adoption system. The book reveals the hardships that social workers are facing now, as well as inappropriate incentives policy that spoils the essence of fostering by adding the opportunistic element to potential parents’ intentions.
Reference
Welch, W. (2017). Fall or fly: The strangely hopeful story of foster care and adoption in Appalachia. Ohio University Press.