Charley Joyce, LICSW, discusses how, in foster care, grief and loss are experienced by everyone involved in the removal and placement of a child. The child, birth parents, and the foster family all go through stages of grief. Yet, this grief is often denied or hidden. Learn about the stages of natural grieving, how grief is expressed, and “complex grief.” Also discussed are strategies for helping children, birth parents and family members handle and appropriately express their feelings of grief and loss.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• identify the stages of grief
• understand what contributes to foster children’s, birth parents’, and foster parents’ grief
• describe the manifestations of grief and loss in children, birth parents, and foster parents
• identify strategies for helping children through the grieving process
• describe “complex grief”
• identify strategies for helping prevent “complex grief”