I struggle with calling it "reunification". Reunification means going BACK to their birth parent(s). Going to a relative who has a blood link but may not even know the child is NOT "reunification" at all, at least not according to the dictionary. Of COURSE I always support reunification when possible, but I don't think that necessarily includes going to someone else just because they are related. I know in the case of my FS, I was told that blood relationship really didn't make much of a difference at all...and he was placed with me in "kinship care" simply because I had a pre-existing relationship with him.
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Originally Posted by spicedmama
As a recent "graduate" of MAPP, I sometimes find it difficult that folks forget that the purpose of foster care is to have a safe haven for the child to be placed while the adults work on REUNIFICATION. If reunification is not appropriate then it's biological family placement, and/or foster/adopt. I am very surprised to hear about the Florida law because anyone who has struggled with and through the ICPC process knows that 6 months is a drop in the bucket. It's nothing. ICPC is a very long process, and the biological relatives who fight through it's maze are amazing folks. And believe me, they fight. I think it's as bad as natural childbirth. It's awful. In the time it takes for the ICPC to be finalized I would want the child to bond with their foster family. We were taught in MAPP that they should bond with you, but foster parents should not forget that they are foster and that the child was placed in their homes to be cared for until they can be REUNIFIED with their biological families. (I am speaking about foster only families).
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