Family Mentors Remove Barriers to Therapy for Foster Families
When a child is in foster care there are several barriers to receiving therapy.
One might be the frequent moves from home to home make it difficult to get started. Another is the cost, and finding a trauma-informed therapist that will take Medicaid. Others are related to logistics, and the difficulty of juggling therapy appointments with caseworker visits, parent visits, or the appointments of other children in the home.
When we would foster sibling groups and have 6-7 children in our home along with our biological children, it seemed an impossible feat to get to therapy. It required multiple babysitters to come to stay with children at home so I could take one to therapy, which caused triggers and behaviors as more strangers were in and out of our home.
Or the other alternative was taking 3-4 children with me to a therapy appointment and praying we could survive somewhere in a lobby while one child received therapy. And there was NO WAY I could also have a sane conversation with the therapist about “how are we doing?” while I was trying to keep us all alive in the lobby.
Family Mentors often engage kids in nature experiences.
At Joy Meadows, we remove barriers to receiving therapy by helping support the caregiver with the logistics.
Our Mentor program matches a volunteer with the family so they can meet them every week when they come to therapy. The Mentor volunteer will play with the other children while the child/parent go to therapy or have multiple types of therapies all at one time.
Therapy Mentors are a huge benefit to the child for several reasons:
This is another positive person in the children’s lives that are pouring into them, increasing confidence and self-esteem.
It builds healthy attachments by teaching a child how to engage in appropriate relationships with trustworthy adults.
It helps with emotional regulation through stability and predictability.
Therapy Mentors are a benefit to the caregivers in several ways as well:
They are a person who “gets it.” You don’t have to explain behaviors or feel judged for your parenting skills.
They help alleviate the burden of childcare.
They are another person helping you carry the weight of loving a child with trauma and meeting their needs.
I truly would not have been able to take several of my children to therapy were it not for our amazing team of mentors. If I needed help chasing kids from my minivan, helping them become regulated through transitions, or just someone to encourage me when I did not feel like being at therapy because I had completely failed at parenting that day, they were there for me. And they were there for my children for however long they were part of our family.
Sign Up for a Family Mentor
Remove one barrier to healing by engaging with a therapy mentor.