I Feel Protective of the Kids I Research Posted on March 1, 2006 Cassandra Simmel (bio) describes why she works with children and youth in foster care.

I've always enjoyed working with children and youth, and I think working with this population appeals to me intellectually. I like a lot of the issues that come up. I've always been very interested in issues around mental health, but also issues around attachment and family relationships, so the child welfare population involves all of those different intellectual aspects as well as just trying to understand some of the broader policy issues that come in, so it appeals to me in that way.

I think it also appeals to the social justice part of me, of working with the population and being an advocate on behalf of a population that really just has very little voice in this country and in this world. I feel very protective of this population.

I like doing research with this population, but I also try to continue to do some clinical work or some sort of direct practice involvement with this population as well so that I can stay connected to them. I feel protective; I feel indebted to the population. I feel like we all learn a lot from them, and I just want to make sure that they... They've just had so much adversity in their young lives, so I want to make sure that they can get on a different course.

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