Helping Children and Families With Separation and Loss

Resources and information on grief and loss issues and their relation to various aspects of child welfare, including child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, and adoption.

The 27 S’s of Attachment-Focused Parenting
Hughes (2016)
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Network
Discusses approaches and tools that can help improve outcomes for children who have experienced separation and loss in the past.

5 Grief Myths About Children and Teens
Craft (2017)
The Spruce
Provides examples of how children in foster care may react in each of the five stages of grief.

Addressing Grief and Loss in Family Support Efforts
AdoptUSKids (2021)
Shares tools and strategies to help professionals better understand how grief and loss affect resource families and help them. 

Best Practices for Grief: Foster Care Placement [Video]
SISGI Group - Institute for Social Change (2015)
Provides professionals techniques for helping children and youth cope with grief.

Children and Adoption: The School Age Years (6–11) (PDF - 811 KB)
Singer (2016)
Center for Adoption Support and Education
Describes grief as a normal adaptive response in school-age children who are processing adoption.

Effects of Separation and Loss on Children's Development (PDF - 31 KB)
Hois
Prevent Child Abuse Vermont
Provides age-specific behaviors to equip caregivers dealing with children and youth in foster care who have experienced loss.

Impact of Separation on Children and Youth
FosterClub
Guides parents, caregivers, and professionals through resources to understand the challenges children may face following a traumatic separation. This resource also provides strategies and tools to assist children and youth in developing coping skills.

Saying Goodbye: Separation and Loss Issues for Foster Parents (PDF - 125 KB)
Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition New York (2014)
Provides handouts in order to help foster parents and children in their care cope with ambiguous loss.

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