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Home > Family Reunification: What the Evidence Shows
Family Reunification: What the Evidence Shows
Series: Issue Briefs
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Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
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Year Published: 2006
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Program Support for Reunification
In addition to offering insight into factors and services that are linked to reunification and stability, the literature and the program examples discussed above suggest several guiding principles for practice in this critical area of permanency planning:
- Families must be included and engaged in the planning and selection of services and the assessment of progress. Positive change is best driven by mutually established goals and open, honest communication between families and helping professionals.
- Maintaining family relationships while children are in care is a critical component of any successful reunification practice. Frequent family visitation is linked to both the likelihood of reunification and post-reunification stability.
- Successful reunification must be systematically considered and planned for from the earliest possible point. Such planning must rest on comprehensive assessment that focuses not only on the issues precipitating placement, but also on family history, relationships, the parents' health and emotional functioning, and the community environment.
- Reunification preparation and post-reunification supports must be based on the needs of the children and family rather than on arbitrary timeframes. Reunification should be viewed as a process that includes maintaining family relationships while children are in care, careful planning, and the provision of post-reunification supports. Families are best supported when all available resources, both formal and informal, are brought to bear on their behalf (Warsh, Maluccio, & Pine, 1994).
Some of these guiding principles can be implemented by caseworkers; all of them, plus the systemic changes such as flexible funding, can be implemented at the agency level or higher.
Questions for Future Research
Much remains to be learned about the decision-making processes and service approaches that best promote family reunification, post-reunification stability, and the well-being of children. Some important questions include:
- What are the most critical considerations in decisions about reunification?
- How do individual variables interact to influence the success of reunification efforts?
- What is the impact of service type, intensity, and duration on specific family needs?
- What qualifications of child welfare staff are most strongly associated with effective reunification practice?
- What practices most effectively address the role of children's bonding with their substitute caregivers in successful family reunification?
- How can substance abuse services best be structured to support parents and children during and following reunification?
Further research into these and other questions regarding family reunification practice will provide guidance to the field and promote timely, safe reunification of children in out-of-home care with their families of origin.
This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.
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