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Life Planning Services: Helping older placed children with their identity

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Abstract

Life Planning Services for Older Children is a time-limited and intensive approach for working with youngsters who are or have been in the American foster care system. The program is designed to help children and adolescents explore the way in which their life experiences influence their selfimage as well as to examine the availability of family membership for the present and the future. The program staff work to strengthen existing family connections or to help youngsters look at alternatives. After examining the impact of identity on placement, the author describes some of the methods used by Life Planning Services staff to help placed children meet the challenges of adolescent identity development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Permanency Planning Unit of the Children's Home Society of Minnesota, 2230 Como Avenue, 55108, St. Paul, Minn.

    Virginia Anne McDermott Ph.D. (Supervisor)

Authors
  1. Virginia Anne McDermott Ph.D.
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Additional information

Sheila Merry, Kay Donley, and Betsy Cole are thanked for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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McDermott, V.A. Life Planning Services: Helping older placed children with their identity. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 4, 97–115 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00756461

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00756461

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