Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement,

and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore.

Our goal is to bring evidence and experience

to illuminate critical public health issues.

If you have questions or ideas for us,

please send an email to public health question at jh.h.edu.

That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith Rogers, the producer of Public Health On Call. for future podcast episodes.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, the producer of Public Health on Call.

Today, the growing challenge of children in foster care with no place to go.

Dr. Josh Sharstein speaks with Molly Tierney, who leads the child welfare work at Accenture,

the global consulting firm.

She explains that change starts with redefining the problem.

Let's listen.

Molly Tierney, thank you so much for joining me in Public Health on Call to talk about these headlines that we see here in Maryland,

but also around the country where kids in the child welfare system are getting stuck in places they shouldn't be.

I'm delighted to be here.

So when you read these headlines, for example, kids are being held in offices, waiting

for placement, kids are being held in hospitals because there's no place for them to go.

What do you think? Oh, you know, it's heartbreaking. And to your point, you know, I saw the headlines in

Maryland. This is a pattern that's happening across the country. It's a, it's you could see it taking

...