Perceptions of Safety Among Children in Foster Care Essay

Perceptions of Safety Among Children in Foster Care - Essay Example With this information, it will be possible to better understand specific safety issues indicative to foster care. In addition, this data will elucidate safety issues that may not be persistent concerns for children in foster care. With this data, social workers could develop programs to raise awareness and improve safety outcomes for children in this care setting. The US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2005) reports that at the end of 2004, 800,000 children were served by the foster care system. Of these children, 304,000 represented new entrants into the program. Although this number is part of a larger trend representing a decrease in foster care over the last several years, it does represent a notable percentage of the child population in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau (2005), there were approximately 7.5 million children living in the US in 2004. As such, almost 10 percent of children in the US were involved in the foster care system at some point in 2004. Clearly, what this data reveals is that the foster care system comprises a significant portion of children living in the United States. As the size of this population continues to grow, social workers and helping professionals are faced with the challenge of providing relevant care that can improve outcomes for chi ldren placed in these living arrangements. With the re... With the realization that so many children in the US are brought into the foster care system, there is a clear impetus to examine the safety of the overall system. A precursory overview of what has been written on the subject suggests that even though numerous authors have examined the issue of safety in the context of the foster care system, the exact manner in which safety is defined differs among scholars. For instance, Altshuler and Gleeson (1999) maintain that there are a host of variables that must be taken into consideration when assessing the safety of the child in foster care. Among these variables are included: physical health; cognitive functioning and developmental delay. Interestingly however, Bilaver, Jaudes, Koepke, and Goerge (1999) conceptualize the safety of children in foster care as directly related to the health of the child. CHAPTER I: PURPOSE STATEMENT For the formulation of the purpose statement, I would like stress on the question posed by the thesis. The question primarily revolves around whether or not children feel safe in their foster home settings. Through the posing of this question, I will try to delve into the perception of safety for these children apart from trying to assert their concept of safety when they are placed in a foster home. In this context, I will try and conceptualize the perceptions of these children through their adult experiences through a focus on literature available on the psycho analytical point of view and literary records of case studies of recalled experiences. The thesis will also focus strongly on the perceptions of the parents who have adopted these children so as to get both sides of the story for a more qualitative research. Problem Statement Although this

Risk of Derivatives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Risk of Derivatives - Essay Example Derivatives are either traded in stock markets or can be quickly made or created through any financial institution (including banks). Derivatives are widely used these days by corporate entities and other users in order to manage and control the risks associated with financial transactions and to limit the risks of changes in rates of commodities, interest rates, market conditions, or foreign currency rates. Derivatives can occur in many forms and types â€Å"including futures, forwards, swaps, options, structured debt obligations, and deposits,† (Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks, 1997, p. 1). These financial instruments produce many risks for the users and both the parties involved (that is, the drawer and the drawee of the derivative contracts). Some of the dangers include the risk of change in the price of the derivative itself, a change in interest rates, and a change in foreign exchange rates, if applicable, to name only a few. In this paper, the manageability of risks of derivatives, as per the given text, is discussed and evaluated. The ideas of Thomas A. Bass, who considers that the risks of derivatives are manageable are compared and evaluated with the ideas presented by Justin Welby who argues that the risks of derivatives are not controllable. The management of risks associated with the use of derivatives and the ideas and conclusions of two authors, Bass and Welby, were discussed. In his article, â€Å"The Ethics of Derivatives and Risk Management,† Welby’s view was that the vast use of derivatives in the financial markets these days in order to reduce certain financial risks and control them is itself quite dangerous. However, the risks associated with the derivatives are quite doable with the help of implementing ethical investment policies, including transparency, governance, and so forth. He believed that derivatives are those financial instruments that can be used to â€Å"alter the risk profiles† rather