The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • A6

A6 I Monday, October 5, 2015 I South Bend TRIBUNE LOCAL care rose 25 percent. The shortage of foster families is putting pressure on the pool of people licensed to foster and making it more dif cult for caseworkers to find local placements. always are able to manage to find foster homes that are equipped for our children. just that often times not within our community or not within their said Angela Smith Grossman, local regional manager for the Indiana Department of Child Services. would like to be able to service that child here in our area because the outcomes are better for Challenges of fostering The Brown elds speak frankly about the challenges of fostering.

To begin with, dealing with the foster care system can be a logistical hassle. Foster parents must submit masses of paperwork to ensure that children receive bene ts. For many children, been months since they visited a doctor or dentist, Justin Brown eld said. Foster parents also eld visits from three caseworkers, who typically come within the rst two weeks of a placement. is a whirlwind of he said.

Moreover, fostering can be emotionally draining. Separating children from their biological parents is a traumatic experience, and for some children that trauma is compounded over and over again by small parental failures. For example, when biological parents visit their children, they are supposed to bring necessities such as diapers, food and formula a small way to prove ready to parent. But when they bring those items, the foster parents are left to deal with the fallout, the Brown elds said. Once, when the Brown elds fostered a group of siblings, the kids were scheduled to visit with their biological parents.

Minutes before the children were supposed to leave, the parents canceled. The 3-year-old already had her shoes on. heart broke for Lydia Brown eld said. think the hardest thing for me is just the emotional roller coaster. And emotional for me, and emotional for the she said.

super emotional because they attach to you so strongly. And sometimes the opposite, like, they want you anywhere near them and angry at For all the challenges they face, the Brown elds say fostering is among the most rewarding experiences of their lives. They eventually adopted the first set of siblings they fostered, and many of the children fostered since have successfully returned to their biological families. making a difference for kids and for their parents, even if their parents are just able to get the help that they need now and get back on Lydia Brown eld said. The Brown elds expect they will slip out of the foster care system the same way many parents do by adopting themselves out of business, as Smith Grossman puts it.

70 percent of our actual adoptions that happen come out of foster Smith Grossman said. not why most foster families get into the work, but what happens a lot of times is that they will either adopt children that were in their care at some point or perhaps their families have changed over the course of time. Maybe they did it when their children were older, but now they are moving away, or they feel too old to reach this Many people decide to foster when someone close to them needs care. Mary Beth and Cordell Kenner started caring for a children more than a year ago, and now they are raising six kids including five foster children and their biological daughter. Their house is hectic.

The bathrooms are crowded, the grocery bills have gone up and they bought a bigger car to fit their growing family. that many kids, we really have to be Cordell Kenner said. But Mary Beth Kenner, who grew up with 14 siblings, worry about the daily challenges. are not alone. (DCS) is with you every step of the she said.

Their church, neighbors and local organizations also are incredibly supportive. want to make sure that these kids are OK, so that they end up becoming productive citizens in society. We want them alone and lashing out in other Growing need In the past year, the populations of children in need of services and children in foster care have risen sharply. In June 2014, DCS oversaw 14,763 Hoosier children in need of services. This year, the number reached 18,621.

Of those children, 13,134 are in foster homes nearly 25 percent more than last year. The increase in foster placements is primarily due to drug use among parents, Wide said. The same phenomenon is taking place across the country, putting pressure on the foster care system. Parents who use drugs are not necessarily abusive or neglectful, Smith Grossman said. But environments in which children are exposed to cocaine, heroin or meth amphetamine are unlikely to be safe.

If caseworkers are unable to find a foster family to take a long-term placement, they may place a child or siblings in a temporary foster home. Children who cannot be placed locally are placed with foster families in other areas of the state. we would like to do is be able to have more options, so we have a better opportunity to keep them in the same school district or keep them in the same neighborhood maintain those essential connections that sometimes get lost if they have to go into a foster care Guimond said. best-case scenario is that not looking within the county, looking within the FROM PAGE A1 Need MOBILE Can you view Web sites on your cell phone? Check out The Tribune at m.southbend tribune.com. Car-train death ruled a suicide OSCEOLA The death of a man in a car-train collision Saturday night on Elder Street in Osceola was a suicide, according to the St.

Joseph County Office. The man, whose identity has not be released yet, drove around the safety gates which had been in the down position and stopped his running car on the tracks, Chief Deputy Coroner Chuck Hurley con rmed Sunday night. The man reportedly texted his wife while he was on the tracks, not too long before the train struck the car. The incident occurred at 6:21 p.m. near East Third Street.

Emergency responders were called to the scene for a report of a car hit by a train, with a person trapped in the car. Body of missing IU student INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A body found floating in a Bloomington lake has been identi ed as that of a missing Indiana University student. WRTV-TV reported that the body of 20-year- old Joseph Smedley was found late Friday night in Griffy Lake, which is north of downtown Bloomington. The Monroe County of ce says preliminary findings indicate Smedley likely drowned. Smedley was last seen Sunday night and was reported missing by his sister on Monday.

sister told authorities she received an apologetic text message from her brother saying that he loved her and was but had plans to leave the country. An attorney for the family released a statement Saturday saying loved ones were heartbroken. They remembered Smedley as an and loving son, brother and For advertising, call 235-6389 CALLFORANAPPOINTMENT A I I I i i a a a a i i i a a a a a a i i i i a i a i a i i i 1 8 a a a a a a a Hometown Joinus tohonortheseheroesattheHometownHeroesBreakfast 5 3 9 9 5 I I A A A 9 3 3 BettyJoAdamson NimbilashaCushing RobertEberlein MichaelHorvath RogerandAliceJacobs KintaeLark RobertandDixieMason AngelaAnnaRodriguez RebeccaRuvalcaba PatShort BooSmith DelshawnTaylor ChantelVinson Reserve yourseats today! Seatingislimited. ToPurchaseYourTickets bendtribune.com/ heroesbreakfast OR CallMelodieWiseat 574-235-6254 0 0 2 0 2 5 4 9 3 9 0 1 SPECIALGUESTSPEAKER PaquiKelly A A I SB-0020255825-01 SB-0020255984-01 FREE SOCIALSECURITYDISABILITY BENEFITSPRESENTATION AreyouthinkingaboutapplyingforSocial SecurityDisabilityBenefitsforyourself informationsessionontheSocialSecurity DisabilityBenefitsprocessonWednesday, InnnearSt.Mary’sCollegeinSouthBend. Theinformationwillbepresentedby attorneyRodneyForbesofthelawfirm Reserveyourplaceatthisinformation sessionbycalling574-232-8600.

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