Help-seeking steps and service use for children in foster care

This study describes help-seeking steps and service-use patterns for school -age children in foster care. It also examines how these access indices are moderated by sociodemographic, enabling, and child disorder factors. Two h ome interviews and a telephone teacher interview were conducted using a sam ple of 302 randomly selected children (age 6-12 years) in foster care. The majority of children (80%) were given a psychiatric diagnosis, and 43% of t he foster parents perceived a need for mental health services for the child . In the past year about one-half of the children had received mental healt h (51%) and special education services (52%). Age and ethnicity, foster par ent education, placement history, level of monthly benefits, number of case worker visits, and disorder characteristics were related to help-seeking st eps and mental health service use. Strategies to improve access to mental h ealth services for children in foster care should include interventions at the caregiver and system levels.