When an Aledo family became the foster family for 13- and 15-year-old boys seven months ago, a Lifebook helped them all understand each other.
Lutheran Social Services of Illinois is working to promote the benefits of Lifebooks for children in foster care. A training DVD featuring local foster care providers, like Nellie Goderis of Aledo, is being shown throughout the state.
"They (the books) are important for both case workers and for children," said Monica Johnson, statewide post-adoption training and services coordinator who is based in Rock Island. "These are books to promote healing and understanding for children who have experienced trauma, loss or change in their lives."
The books include a wide variety of information about the child, including information about their life now, a time line about their past, and goals for the future. It can include information about the child's hobbies and talents, and photos and observations about the child from people in their life. "It also talks about their future goals and what they want to do later in life to show them where they are right now is not where they are going to be for the rest of their life," Ms. Johnson said.
The time line outlines the child's living situation from birth until the present. The books also include vital records like a birth certificate or hospital record. "They are books that keep a record of the child's life while they are in foster care," Ms. Johnson said. "They are a therapeutic tool to help children make sense of why they have been removed from their biological family and placed in foster care."
When a child's living situation changes it can be very confusing for the child, said Kimberly Martin, a therapist with Lutheran Social Services. "Having a Lifebook allows the kids to be able to track everything from when they lived with their birth parents, through all their foster placements, their extended family," Ms. Martin said. "It allows them to have access to information if they are adopted that they might not otherwise have access to."
The Lifebook also gives the child a place to write about why they think they were placed in foster care so that the foster parent or caseworker can understand and help them process their thoughts, Ms. Johnson said. "It's a concrete tool," she said.
The books have helped Mrs. Goderis' foster sons "stay connected with who they are, their roots," she said. "It's important for kids to not have any empty holes in their life," she said. "By maintaining pictures of biological family, siblings, that keeps them connected to who they are."
When they add in things like report cards and pictures of things the biological family missed, it's a way to keep them connected too. "It's something when they go on visits that they can take with, ... so that their family doesn't miss anything in their life either."
Even if a child is returned home to their biological family, a Lifebook can help them remember the time they were away. "Sometimes children are in care for a long, long time and they leave foster care and they have no record," Ms. Johnson said. "They lose a huge part of their life. Some of these kids have holes and missing pieces of their life."
When they get to be adults, they can't remember which foster care home they were in during which time period. "Their memories blur together," Ms. Johnson said. "Children can't heal when their life is a blur. (The Lifebook) is a concrete piece they can look at, understand, interpret and re-interpret."
The book continues to grow as the child grows
because they may understand their situation differently at different
ages, she said. "It's more than a scrapbook. It talks about sad things
along with happy things," Ms. Johnson said.
Amy Rausch
28 January 2008
