Artist Statement

On the first day of class in film 150 we were told that we would be working with a local non-profit organization involved with foster children in order to research a topic of our choosing and create a blog. From that day forward, I knew that it would be a journey to get to the point of a finished product that would be both interesting to me and the readers of this blog.

My idea to focus on the psychiatric health of children in foster care came following my first interview with a CASA volunteer named Susan. Going into the interview I had no clue as to what I wanted my main topic for this blog to be. I began by asking general questions about the program and found myself constantly drifted away from my prepared questions and back to the changes of the children both socially and psychologically. I Left the interview knowing that I had found my topic of interest, Psychological change in foster children. As the days went on, I began to research on the broad topic, looking for something that would allow me to look more in depth into the problem. My research led me to an article from the Associated Press via MSNBC online. In this article I found what I was looking for, a major problem that I would be able to take a strong stance on. Prior to this point in the semester, my fellow classmate David and I had been working together on a topic relating to changes in children when they transition into the system. Although this was also an important problem, I never connected to the material that I researched. My new topic, the overuse of psychiatric drugs, was both intriguing and thought provoking. The topic, while very specific, has aspects that cover many different social and political arguments. The main beneficiaries of this legal, large scale drug use are the drug companies which represent corporate America. The companies are not alone however, it seems as though Psychiatrist have no other options available to them but prescription drugs. The reason for this is largely financial and is pushed forward by parents and case workers who are ill-equipped to deal with children with anger problems. A vicious cycle has been created that involves courts, foster parents, mental health professionals, and drug companies. The main losers in this cycle are the foster kids that have already been through mental and physical abuse. The interviews with Aisha and Andrew helped to enlighten the average person, like myself, about the failure of the foster care system to properly diagnose and treat and mental issues that children in the foster system may have. While these online interviews did enable me to further understand the mentality of a foster child, a firsthand interview was required for this blog. For this in person interview David and I spoke with a man named John who was a foster parent of a two year old boy. While this interview didn’t contribute to my topic, I gained valuable information about the foster care system in general. Overall, my experiences with Kids Matter and my research on the topic of psychiatric drug use in foster children has given me insight on one of the most important issues facing the foster care system today.