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Demands associated with foster parenting are substantial and support is crucial. Peer support is a form of support where foster parents connect formally with other foster parents with experience who can provide knowledge, emotional and practical help. The purpose of the present study was to identify what the needs are of foster parents in that peer support role from the views of peer support volunteers themselves. Interviews were conducted with 14 foster parent peer mentors staffing a telephone consultation service for foster parents across a large geographic area. Each was asked: what do you need to be a good peer support volunteer? Results were analyzed using group concept mapping and five concepts emerged, including: Kindness, Self-care, Good People Skills, Fostering Experience, and Informed and Knowledgeable. Results are compared and contrasted with peer support literature.

Caregivers of youth with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder participated in telephone interviews about their hopes for their youths as adults. Interviews with 16 birth, adoptive, and foster parents, as well as with aunts and grandparents of children over the age of 10 years, were conducted. A total of 54 unique responses were made to the question “What do you want for your child as an adult?”. Participants independently grouped all responses into themes. The groupings were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis using the concept system and resulted in four concepts. The concepts included the following: (a) education and employment, (b) positive relationships, (c) community integration, and (d) support services. The main differences between the participants’ experiences and the literature centered on different emphases on feelings relative to skills and on strengths relative to deficits.

Resource workers are child welfare workers who work closely with foster parents following placement of a child placed in care. One of the challenges they experience is reluctance to their involvement. Resource workers from a large metropolitan area were asked: “What do you do when foster parents are reluctant about your involvement?” Responses to this question were analyzed with multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Nine concepts resulted, including: Recognize Problems, Build Trust, Go the Extra, Be Positive, Broaden their Network, Find Commonalities, Set Limits, Understand Them, and Reinforce Accountability. These concepts were compared and contrasted with the available literature.

The purpose of the study was to identify the positive aspects and strengths experienced by newcomer youth within their home environments. Youth between the ages of 15 and 18 years old who immigrated within the previous 2 years and were living in a medium-sized Canadian city were interviewed. Group interviews were conducted with participants at a local community centre. Analysis of the data was completed using concept mapping (Trochim, 1989) which included multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Similar to the literature, results indicated that newcomer youth felt secure and experienced positive familial connections. Youth viewed their families as a source of support, while also acknowledging their need for autonomy. Differences between study results and the literature were found in relation to family rules and integration with Canadian culture. Implications of the findings are discussed within a counseling framework for mental health practitioners to better understand the protective resources of resilience available to newcomer youth.

An ideology is what is believed to be right. A worldview is what is believed to be true. Worldview is a lens through which self and reality are interpreted, including beliefs about what can be known and done. Personality is a way of being, with styles of feeling, thinking, and acting. These qualities relate to perceptions of human nature, social relationships, and relationship to the natural world. Each of these has implications for how counselors and psychotherapists view themselves, their roles, and their clients.

Compassion in counseling and psychotherapy communicates caring, engagement, and helpfulness. It also has potential emotional costs. Secondary traumatic stress has a rapid onset and includes symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. Vicarious traumatization develops over time and exposure to traumatic experiences presented by clients. Stress is the perceived demands of a situation that require more than the possessed resources to manage successfully. While the objective characteristics of the situation may be consistent, the experience of that situation varies considerably across individuals’ cognitive, emotional, physiological, and interpersonal processes. Burnout concerns the perceptions of stress held by the individual. While challenges are inevitable, there is also the potential for personal growth in the forms of compassion satisfaction, vicarious resilience, and thriving.

Kimberle Crenshaw first wrote about intersectionality to theorize about how race, class, and gender interact and affect the ways that women of color experience oppression. Power is always present in relationships. It is important to recognize the power that therapists represent in the therapeutic relationship, in the context of their profession, agency, and community. Empowerment is to capitalize on the power that a client possesses to strengthen, expand, and apply it.

Without the therapist’s openness and responsivity to a client’s emotional experience, counseling and psychotherapy are mechanistic and without compassion. Countertransference is the automatic emotional reaction of a therapist toward a client that occurs within the therapeutic encounter. Cultural background, personal experiences, and socialization contribute to countertransference responses. Values, theories, as well as biases and prejudices, all play a role in the responses and affect the therapy.

The purpose of this study was to explore and identify key themes related to a child’s experience of anger. The existing literature on children’s emotional experiences stems from adult perceptions and interpretations; this study was envisioned to investigate the experience of anger among children using their own words. Furthermore, this study was designed to illustrate a contextual perspective of children’s emotional knowledge, so that teachers, social workers, counsellors and other child mental health professionals may be able to relate and interpret children’s emotional experiences. Participants were male and female students, aged 8–9 years and in a regular grade three classroom within a community school. Through the use of semi-structured interview focus groups conducted over a span of 10 weeks, participants were invited to disclose their understandings of anger and how they experienced it. Results were analyzed via a content analysis that resulted in five themes. These themes consisted of understanding anger, origins of anger, consequences of anger, regulation and resolution of anger, and finally relations with others. Results and implications of the findings were discussed.

Foster parent resource workers are those staff members in foster care who have dedicated support and monitoring functions. Resource workers in a large metropolitan Canadian area were asked the question “What do you need to be a good resource worker?” A total of 68 participants generated responses and those responses were analyzed using the concept mapping method. The result was 7 concepts, including: good conflict management, understanding of family functioning, knowledge of policy and practice, voice in decisions, confidence, self awareness, and right kind of personality.

Aboriginal children are overrepresented in care. Aboriginal foster parents are underrepresented. There is a need to recruit and retain Aboriginal foster parents. In the study, Aboriginal foster parents were asked: “What do you need emotionally to be a good foster parent?” The results were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, leading to eight concepts, including: awareness, contentment, self-assurance, appreciation, resolve, space, caring, and commitment to one's values. These results were compared with the existing foster parent literature. Similarities and differences were described.

Aboriginal foster parents were surveyed about their mental needs. Each was asked “What do you need mentally to be a good foster parent?”. A total of 58 unique responses were made. They were grouped together by participants and the grouping data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Seven concepts resulted from the analysis. The concepts included: knowledge, breaks, recognition, optimism, discipline, patience and determination. Results were compared and contrasted with the fostering literature.

Foster care departments are primary sources of support to foster parents within the system. Resource workers are the main points of contact for foster parents within agencies but little has been reported in the literature about their role. Foster parent resource workers within a large metropolitan area were asked “What does a foster parent resource worker do?” Results were analyzed using the concept mapping method and ten concepts resulted from the analysis including: monitor placement, facilitate communication between parties, teach communication skills, match foster homes and foster children, retain foster parents, promote teamwork, address problems with placements, support foster families, exercise authority, and ensure smooth operation.

The purpose of the study was to describe ways that successful culture-based Aboriginal preventive family service agencies offer employment and education opportunities for staff. Staff in three inner-city, culture-based Aboriginal family agencies were asked about their employment and educational opportunities. Forty-four individuals were asked the question: ‘what employment and education opportunities have you had while in this job?’ A total of 81 unique responses were received. Participants grouped the responses into eight themes including: planning for services, promotion within the agency, specific skill development, enhanced self-confidence, cultural awareness, teaching others, workshops as well as certified training. Differences between the experiences of study participants and the existing literature indicate that practices within culture-based Aboriginal family agencies are distinct in relation to funding, staff mobility, strengths-base, practical training and cultural knowledge, and that these should be understood and recognized formally in funding decisions and in future research.

Foster parents licensed in a central Canadian province were contacted by telephone and invited to participate in a survey that included the question “What are the challenges of fostering a child with the same values, beliefs, and traditions as you?” Participants sorted all responses to the question into concepts that were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis in accordance with the concept mapping method. The final concept map included five clusters that were labeled rebuild confidence, different expectations, resistance, restore connections, and acceptance. Results were compared to the literature. Similarities and differences are presented.

A random sample of Canadian foster parents were asked about the importance of culture in fostering. In response to the question “What values, beliefs and traditions were you raised with and feel are important?,” a total of 74 different responses were received. These responses were grouped together by foster parents and the groupings analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Seven concepts emerged from the groupings, including: (1) spirituality, (2) nationality, (3) personal experience, (4) religion, (5) responsibilities, (6) respect, and (7) right and wrong. These results are compared to the literature. Similarities and differences are noted.

There is a considerable amount of research on the challenges associated with parenting children who have dis- abilities, and little that focuses on positive aspects. The purpose of the study was to describe the rewards of parents of children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Nineteen birth, foster or adoptive parents were asked to answer the following question: "What are the rewards of parenting a child with a FASD?" The data were analyzed using multidi- mensional scaling and cluster analysis. Four clusters resulted. Parents indicated that they saw the children's effort, growth, and accomplishment in a variety of domains as encouraging. Parents also reported feeling appreciated by the children. Re- sults suggest that rewarding parenting experiences with children who have alcohol-related disabilities are multiple, diverse and, when compared to the literature, largely consistent. The results lend credibility to the existing literature on the re- wards of parenting children with developmental disabilities, and FASD in particular.

The purpose of the study was to describe the needs of foster parents for placement success. Sixty-three foster parents from a central Canadian province were asked the following question: “What do you need for a successful foster placement”? Foster parents grouped together all responses, which were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis procedures. Foster parents indicated that they needed the right personality and skills, information about the foster child, a good relationship with the fostering agency, individualized services, community support, linkages to other foster families, supportive immediate and extended families, as well as self-care skills. There were some differences between the existing literature and the needs identified by study participants. Differences included the need for information about policies and procedures, their treatment by professionals, and the need for formal foster parent organizations.

The purpose of the study was to describe the perceived causes of placement breakdown by foster parents. Sixty-three foster parents from fifty families were asked to describe their challenges in response to the following question: “What would make you consider ending a foster placement”? The responses to this question were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, to yield nine themes. Foster parents indicated that they would consider ending a placement if there was a danger to their family, if the child could not adapt to the home or if they could not handle the child's behavior. Participants reported that the complex health needs of a foster child, problems dealing with the foster agency, and several unsuccessful attempts to make the placement work would cause a placement to breakdown. Foster parents also indicated that they would consider ending a placement if their personal circumstances changed, their own health deteriorated, or there was a lack of appropriate external support in place. The results of the study point to gaps in the research on violence in general foster care, foster parent perceptions of contributions to a foster child's transition back to his or her birth family, and the process of foster parent decision-making in cases of placement breakdown.

A random sample of 63 foster parents from a central Canadian province was asked “What do you need for a successful placement for a child who has a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?”. The responses to this question were edited for clarity and sorted into piles of like statements by foster parents. Two types of statistical analysis were applied to the sorting of the statements to describe the relationship between statements and their groupings. The major concepts were identified according to the contents of the cluster, and a map was constructed to provide a graphic representation of the conceptualization process. Foster parents described the need for social support, material support, a structured home environment, professionals, other foster parents, understanding of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, the right kind of personality, and organization skills. Discrepancies between the existing literature and study results were described, and suggestions for future research were made.

The purpose of the study was to describe the challenges faced by foster parents as perceived by foster parents themselves, because they are on the front lines of service delivery. Forty-nine individuals from 30 foster families were asked to describe their challenges in response to the following question: “What would make you consider stopping foster parenting?”. Responses to this question were subjected to non-parametric statistical thematic analysis that yielded four themes. The first theme described the challenges of working with the department of Child Welfare and its staff. The second theme described challenges related to indications that foster parents received about their work having low value in the perception of others, most notably, the department of Child Welfare. The third theme was descriptive of threats to family and personal safety, both physical/emotional and legal. The fourth theme described personal/familial and stress-related challenges that could cause thoughts of quitting foster parenting. These themes were consistent with the empirical literature. The results of this study lend credibility to the existing literature on the challenges faced by foster parents.

Aboriginal families are highly overrepresented in child welfare caseloads. Major reasons for these high rates of involvement include poverty and housing issues, which contribute to perceptions of child neglect. In Winnipeg, the city with the highest proportion of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, low-cost housing is concentrated in core neighbourhoods. Homeless youth in these neighbourhoods, who are involved or have been involved in child welfare, were asked about their life experiences and the kind of housing that would help them. They talked about the need to be seen as resourceful, contributing members of the community, as well as their continued need of support from others, including friends and family. They wanted more than a place to sleep; they wanted a home that was safe, nurturing and long-term. The youth had school and work aspirations for themselves and wanted to help other youth reach their goals. There is a need for expansion of community-based and community-driven housing with youth who have been involved in the child welfare system.