Foster youth face significant obstacles in developing college and career opportunities. But some of the major barriers are their own perceptions of their future. Can Motivational Interviewing (MI) help them?
According to Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY), the following statistics apply to foster youth:
• Foster care youth’s overall developmental delay is 6 times greater than the general population.
• 2/3 of young women formerly in foster care are mothers within 5 years of leaving foster care.
• 25% of emancipated youth are homeless.
• Youth with early unemployment are more likely to have lower future earnings and repeated joblessness.
• 80% of foster youth did not earn enough to be fully self-supporting 4 years after leaving care.
Although many programs exist to help foster youth, such as the Chaffee Grant and other services, this may not be enough for the youth. Many youths come from families where no one graduate high school, let alone went to college or a trade school. From years of abuse, trauma, and multiple placements, their self-view is not one of a positive future. When a foster youth doesn’t want to face the future, hasn’t positive attitudes about a career, how can a social worker get to them to even talk about opportunities?
One option is to use MI techniques, such as “Change Talk. There are four elements that a practitioner can apply that reduce a youth’s resistance to change and discuss their career-building skills:
1. The Status Quo – at the moment, many foster youths may be unhappy with their lives, but don’t want to change or make efforts. Talking to them about the disadvantages of their current beliefs, their worries, concerns, and the consequences of these actions aid them in being ready to adapt their beliefs.
2. The Advantages of Change – pairing the disadvantages of doing nothing, the practitioner talks about what happens if the youth tours a couple of community colleges or seeks a career. They also discuss what they want life to be like in 5,10, 20 years.
3. Optimism for Change – the practitioner asks the youth about times in their life where they made changes for the better. Recalling past successes bolsters the youth’s ability to see change as possible.
4. The Intention of Change – ask a youth on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 10 (extremely) how likely they are to have a career or go to college. Once there’s a number, the practitioner can ask why they choose it and what it would take to increase it to improve their intent to change.
Praxes offers courses such as College and Career Readiness and Motivational Interviewing. For more information, please contact us.
Got questions? We've got answers.
PRAXES is a nationwide behavioral health software, consulting, and training company. No one in the behavioral health industry has a better reputation, and if you give us the chance, we’ll show you why! At PRAXES, our services improve the efficiency and structure of behavioral health agencies serving children and families nationwide. PRAXES brings over 45 years of administrative and clinical expertise. With more than 100 client companies nationwide, we offer the expertise to advance the quality of behavioral health services. We accomplish these goals through our new clinical decision software, our training of best practices, and helping companies meet regulatory standards. At PRAXES, we believe in being creative and fostering new ways to serve children and their families. Our vision is to empower the families our agencies serve with skills that not only improve their functioning, but help them to thrive in their everyday lives. When you give us the chance, you’ll be connected directly to our friendly staff, so you can expect immediate attention to your inquiry. So, don’t wait, call now!
Dan Thorne has unique perspectives on the field of mental health. As a clinician, he has had over 40 years of experience working with clients in the Southern California area. After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Irvine, he worked with children in the Orange County Juvenile Hall. Here he honed his earliest techniques on at-risk children. After that, he obtained his Master’s degree in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton.
In the 1990’s, Dan turned his attention to the clinical and administrative side of behavioral health organizations. For three years, he was the Assistant Administrator of Starting Point, a chemical dependency facility in Costa Mesa, CA. In 2001, he took an opportunity to be the Director of Harbor View Community Services Center in Long Beach. When he arrived, the Center had only 80 clients and 13 staff. When he left, there were over 400 clients and 75 staff. Dan created several programs through their contract with the Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health and Child and Family Services. Under his guidance, Harbor View became one of the leading providers of children’s services in Los Angeles County.
While improving the results of the client’s parents at the Center, Dan reflected on his experiences as a parent. His children themselves had special needs such as mental and intellectual challenges, and Dan knew the toll it takes on the parent. In order to help the child, the parent has to be healthy. From this concept, he created his parenting program. After years of refining it, teaching it to his staff at the Center, and then taking the results and comments from these efforts, he became the developer of the current PRAXES program. It is a culmination of Dan’s personal trials and tribulations as a parent along with empirical results and research of over 40 parenting programs.
Our vision at PRAXES is to advance the strength of parents and caregivers of children with special needs (mental health, intellectual, or physical) through education, support, and empowerment. Thus, they can live healthy and functional lives while caring for the child.
Apogee is a clinical decision software designed to help behavioral health practitioners with their treatment and patient engagement. It provides evidence-based and research-based components. Not only do they consist of elements from such practices as Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Seeking Safety, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Functional Behavior Analysis, but also the Intensive Models for Parents, Youth, and Children.
PRAXES has over 30 years of accreditation experience. We know what it takes to get your organization accredited. Whether it’s Joint Commission, CARF, or COA, our team can provide an evaluation of your current status and review the standards which need improvements. We will assist you with the policies, documentation, and training required to be accredited.
All Rights Reserved | Praxes