• 14 May 2018
• Posted in: Healthcare

It is well known that care leavers experience disproportionately more disadvantage than the general population in areas such as education, housing, finance, criminal justice, self-esteem, health. There is some acknowledgement of the effects of this disadvantage but very little being done to reduce it. Three years ago The Care Leavers Association set about looking more closely at the area of health disadvantage. We wanted to get a better understanding of the health needs of care leavers and to try and develop ways in which agencies could better respond to these needs.

We established a project Caring For Better Health. We approached the issue from various angles: understand the current research; talk to care leavers about their experiences; talk to practitioners; understand the needs of commissioners. The end point would be to bring this all together in a research report with recommendations for service improvement.

Although there is not a great deal of direct research on care leaver health we downloaded over 100 research publications that asked some questions about health to either looked after children or care leavers. The main surprise? Just how much of the research was in agreement – looked after children and care leavers experience a range of negative physical and mental health issues. Given this body of research its frustrating to see that not a lot has been done over the years to improve health outcomes.

Next we asked care leavers about their experiences to see if it responded to the literature review. We developed a survey which received 417 responses. Some of the top level findings included:

• 87% of people experienced feelings of low self esteem
• 79% of people experienced feelings of anxiety
• 76% of people experienced feeling depressed
• 78% of people experienced feelings of isolation
• 25% of people were using recreational drugs in care
• 54% of people felt their mental health issues were as a result of their time in care
• 20% of people felt their physical health issues were as a result of their time in care

However it was in the sections where we asked people to describe their experiences that we received the most difficult of responses. Some included:

“Being in care made me have more problems to deal with, not less.”

 “I often felt undermined and not listened to, which made me feel a lack of control and fed my anxiety and panic attacks”

“I think being in care has negatively impacted me, made any feelings I had a lot worse, isolated and unloved”

Now we are not saying that all care leavers experience negative mental and physical health – this is just not the case.

Some of these issues may be related to the reasons for entry into care and some may be related to the experience of being in care. For whilst the care system is well intentioned, it can also cause harm. A lack of emotional bond with carers, frequent placement moves, not being listened too, treating me different to “normal kids”, not being given a chance to talk about my past, not being given enough love, care and attention - these are all situations described by care leavers which can have serious implications for mental health especially they are continually repeated and reinforced over a period of time.

And things don’t always get any better when care leavers are trying to forge their way through life as adults. No one cares about you, totally on your own, all support disappears, not given skills (practical, emotional etc), had to wait months to be seen so I gave up – these are some of the experiences of people in the leaving care process. And again the repeated nature of these issues means that they can build and build until something breaks.

But generally, when it breaks it’s not seen as serious enough. Too many care leavers do not fit the criteria to access mental health services and so are left with no support. Yet the issues are real. The reality is harsh. And it’s not just mental health. Recent research has shown that exposure to trauma during childhood significantly increases the likelihood of physical illness.

So what needs to change? Well we need to improve the processes involved in the care system and make the care placement as supportive and loving for a young person as possible. We have to provide opportunities for the young person to grow. We need to help young people in care and care leavers to understand themselves and communicate well with others. And we must listen to them. In essence there needs to be an understanding that the whole care experience can have an effect on a young person’s health and wellbeing. We have to plan to get it right. And where there are negative health issues then we need to provide the right support at the right time. And the support needs to be provided not just to those leaving care but to adult care leavers of any age. There needs to be a number of systemic and service related changes made to improve things for care leavers.

Read the full report here http://www.careleavers.com/what-we-do/health-project/