Understanding Loss in Foster Care
For the children, their family, and their foster family, foster care is full of loss regardless of the reason the child was removed. For the child, thosee losses include their parents, home, pets, extended family, friends, school, and all that is familiar. For the parents, the biggest loss, of course, is their children, but many also feel the loss of the dream that they would be the type of parent that they had always hoped they would be. Foster parents also experience loss when the child moves back home or to a permanent adoptive family.
Loss impacts the child’s behavior, learning, and attachment to the foster family. It can significantly impact the relationship between the foster family and the birth family. Fear of experiencing the pain of loss can also make some foster parents hesitant to love the next foster child as deeply.
Creating a Family has resources, supported by research and experienced therapists, for helping foster parents understand the losses associated with foster care. A few we think you will find particularly helpful are:
- Talking With Our Kids About Their Losses During Co-Vid 19 Shutdowns (blog post, from our CoVid-19 series)
- Using This Time of Shutdown to Develop Resiliency in our Children and our Family (1 hr. radio interview w/expert, from our CoVid-19 series)
- What Every Foster Parent Should Know: 8 Losses Foster Kids Feel (blog)
- 7 Core Issues in Adoption and Foster Care (1 hr. radio interview w/ expert)
Scroll to the very bottom of this page to see the resources we have on understanding loss in foster care in the form of blogs, articles, radio shows/podcasts, tip sheets, fact sheets and expert Q & A’s.
Additional Resources
