Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Nov 17/99) - A shortage of foster parents in the Kivalliq region has social workers worried about their ability to address emergency situations.

Dean Harvey, area supervisor for Rankin Inlet Social Services for the Keewatin Regional Health and Social Services Board, says the KRHSSB is having difficulty recruiting new foster parents and is trying desperately to rectify the situation.

"We're quite short of foster homes in many of our communities and the ones we do have are already being used," says Harvey.

"It's a Kivalliq-wide problem. If we have an emergency, we're really stuck for options in where we might temporarily place children."

The problem is not restricted to emergency situations.

There is also a shortage of qualified foster parents to look after children already in care on a longer-term basis.

Foster parents typically have kids of their own and are knowledgeable about being parents.

The KRHSSB makes it clear foster parenting is temporary in nature, whether parents are looking after a child for a weekend or a year.

"Foster kids can always end up going back to their natural parents or end up being adopted to their extended relatives."

About half the kids needing care are considered to have problem behaviour.

"That's expected because these children were found to be in need of protection due to somebody either abusing or neglecting them, or not meeting the child's needs at some level," says Harvey.

The first step to becoming a foster parent begins with a trip to social services to fill out an application and undergo a criminal records check. Then it's off for a basic medical checkup to ensure no concerns are evident in providing care in a foster parent capacity.

The next step is a home study where both parents are interviewed separately to provide a bit of family history and to give the caseworker some insight into their parenting approach.

"As for the home environment, we need to look at things such things sleeping arrangements.

"It may be appropriate for a crib to be in the master bedroom for a two- year-old, but not a 12-year-old.

"We also ask what it was like for them growing up, what kind of parenting they received, what they think about parenting and to describe their style of parenting."

In the case of provisional foster parents, child and parents are related.

Provisional parents receive less money due to some expectation that extended family will look out for each other.

"We don't want to make it a money-generating situation. We have to ensure people are doing it for the right reasons."

Parents always have the choice to work with one specific age group, boys only or girls only. They don't have to be available to everybody.

Harvey says foster parents aren't paid to be on call and don't have to take a child every time they're asked.

He says more available vacancies are needed for the program to continue to work in such an open manner.

"Foster parents are worth their weight in gold to us and are a wonderful benefit to the community.

"Their availability means so much to these kids."