Author:  Dianne Nelson
ISBN:  978-1-4327-5197-5
Publisher:  Outskirts Press

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Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a foster parent?  How nice it would feel to care for children and help make them feel safe, to help build their trust in the world?  Dianne Nelson wanted to become a foster parent and did all the required training and background checks to do just that.  Dianne writes in an easy to understand language about her personal struggle with one child in her own foster home.

When Dianne finished the required training for foster parents, she felt ready to take on caring for a child….until she met Breonna.  In a short period of time, Dianne realized the training she received was worthless when dealing with the realities of what had happen to this child prior to Dianne’s care.  It was foreign to Dianne how Breonna coped in this new world of trust and love. Dianne slowly found that all her institutional support resources for this type of behavior were clueless in helping.   No matter which direction she turned for help, it was a dead end…for her and for Breonna. 

The children in foster care have an unlimited amount of ways they deal with “survival” that may be peculiar to those that have not lived in that world.  Although there is little real detail in the book, it is written so the reader does get an overview of how both of their lives changed, even though the time frame is unclear. The book shows how, at each turn, the system fails.  It fails the foster parents that care for these children, it fails the children that have been abused in the foster care system, under the supervision of the caseworkers, psychologists, and law enforcement; it fails our society in giving us a false sense of security while spinning the resources into a cob web.

Beonna has many issues prior to arriving at Dianne’s home, which have not been addressed.  She is labeled, but not treated, for obsessive compulsive disorder, she has been sexually abused by previous foster parents, and denied basic things we take for granted…food, water and shelter.  Who wouldn’t have a bad reaction to any of that?

This book is just one of thousands of stories of a system that is as dysfunctional as any other part of corporate America, filled with unqualified professionals that are unable to communicate within their own systems while having a huge negative impact on our society and the children growing up in it. 

Click Here To Purchase What About The Children?: What's the Strategy to Prevent These Tragedies?