Actress/TV presenter Rosie O'Donnell has urged more Americans to become foster parents - because programs to protect neglected children are in crisis.

The A League of Their Own star and her partner, Kelli Carpenter, are licensed foster parents in the state of Florida, and have worked extensively to bring an end to laws prohibiting same-sex family adoption. O'Donnell is concerned growing budget cuts spurred on by the international economic crisis will have a devastating effect on the child services system. And she is pleading with families to become caretakers for abused or neglected children, through foster care or court-appointed advocate programs.

She says, "The doctors and social workers who work with this population have unbelievably large caseloads. To give the kind of individualized attention that happens in a residential treatment facility is hard to come by, especially because the facilities are being closed as programs are cut and cut and cut, and they don't have the time to individually get to know the every child they need to get to know. Foster parents on the whole are great people but we need more of them and we need CASA advocates (Court Appointed Special Advocate)."

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)