Addressing the Mental Health Service Needs of Foster Youth During the Transition to Adulthood: How Big Is the Problem and What Can States Do?

Approximately 24,000 young people "age out" of foster care each year without having achieved a permanent home [1]. Too old for the child welfare system but not yet ready to live on their own, these young people are at high risk for experiencing a number of adverse outcomes during their transition to adulthood, including economic insecurity, housing instability, criminal justice involvement, and early childbearing [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] and [9]. One factor that may contribute to these adverse outcomes is the high rate of mental health disorders among foster care populations [10]. Numerous studies have found that children in foster care exhibit higher levels of emotional and behavioral problems not only when they are compared with children in community- based samples [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16] and [17], but even when they are compared with children whose demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are similar to theirs [14], [18], [19] and [20].