Caring for Foster Youth During COVID-19 BY CHARLICE BYRD
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many ways, and it has presented complex issues for children, and additional burdens for staff, in the foster care system. Children entering care are often placed in a congregate setting where viruses spread quickly. With tests not always readily available, those receiving children into their homes must assess the risk of exposure from a child entering care. Additionally, staff members working in congregate settings must balance the risk to their family members, and those they care for, while executing their jobs. For staff members who are caring for elderly family members in their own homes, working in congregate care means potential daily exposure to the COVID-19 virus, which could be carried home to loved ones. Even so, those who are caring for the community’s children continue to show up, ensuring the foster care system is serving its critical role. Employees who test positive for COVID-19 or have exposures outside of work bring additional burdens to the agency in the form of staffing shortages. However, security measures to safeguard staff and children remain in place. So, when new hires are onboarded, they still need
mandatory background checks, including fingerprinting. This safeguard, albeit important, provides a delay when sites need additional staff due to pandemic exposure, and it causes congregate workers to work with a tight staffing pattern. Additional roles staff filled during community closings included teaching students during the day, as well as serving as nurses, therapists, clergy and other roles when access was limited during quarantine. Our community is blessed with caring individuals who rose to the occasion by providing cleaning supplies, toilet paper, hygiene items and care packages daily due to the limited number of supplies available. Get involved in the foster care system in any way you can contribute. No small act of kindness is too little, because so much is needed. The system needs us to invest in the children, and those housing them, to ensure they are cared for and loved.
Rep. Charlice Byrd represents District 20 in the Georgia House of Representatives. charlice.byrd@house.ga.gov
TOWNELAKER | October 2021
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