Mitigating
Trauma: Removal and Placement
Conversations with Children During Removal and Placement
Children of any age have the right to know what is happening to them. This is especially true with something as serious as separation from family. Giving children developmentally appropriate information reduces the traumatic impact of separation. Often, we avoid talking to children about difficult subjects to protect them from the pain of the truth. However, children have a right to know about things that affect their lives, and they need to be supported (more on traumatic separation in sources and resources section).
Research shows that in most cases, children are not told the reasons for separating from their family, and many are lied to about what is happening and what to expect in the future.
Important Conversations with Children
Listening to voices of children in decisions that affect them:
Our responsibility as social workers
"The right of children to participate in decisions that impact their lives has been widely recognized, but it is scarcely present in the decision making processes within the child protection system...removals occur suddenly without being consulted and with very little information about where they are going, why they are going and what is going to occur."
Balsells et al., 2017, p. 423
The rights of children to participate in decisions that affect their lives was established in the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1989. This includes child protection situations and it is our responsibility.