“I felt for a long time like everything beautiful in me had been taken out”: Women's suffering, remembering, and survival following the loss of child custody

Kenny, Kathleen S.; Barrington, Clare; Green, Sherri L.

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.05.024

Cited by 85 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In the literature, separation from a child has been correlated with the development or intensification of mental health conditions 10. We found mothers whose children had been taken into care showed significantly increased rates of anxiety and substance use disorder diagnoses in the 2 years after separation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…The few studies published on this topic have used qualitative methods to gather stories of mothers’ experiences with having a child taken into care 7–10. Some mothers indicated the development or intensification of mental health conditions after their child was removed 10. Mothers have also reported turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma of having their child taken into care 10 11.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Maternal health and social outcomes after having a child taken into care: population-based longitudinal cohort study using linkable administrative data

Wall‐Wieler

Roos

Bolton

et al. 2017

J Epidemiol Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal health and social outcomes after having a child taken into care: population-based longitudinal cohort study using linkable administrative data

Wall‐Wieler

Roos

Bolton

et al. 2017

J Epidemiol Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…327 In other countries, even where there are not formal drug registries, drug use may figure prominently in child custody decisions by state authorities as women who use drugs are likely to be seen as unfit parents. 328,329 A 2004 UNODC report noted that there were still some places where by law women who are found to use drugs could be incarcerated for their entire pregnancy and sometimes longer. 330 Any such factors, including stigma on the part of health service providers, can inhibit women’s seeking of treatment services.…”

Section: Treatment For Drug Dependence: the Need For Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public health and international drug policy

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Executive summary In September 2015, the member states of the United Nations endorsed sustainable development goals (SDG) for 2030 that aspire to human rights-centered approaches to ensuring the health and well-being of all people. The SDGs embody both the UN Charter values of rights and justice for all and the responsibility of states to rely on the best scientific evidence as they seek to better humankind. In April 2016, these same states will consider control of illicit drugs, an area of social policy that has been fraught with controversy, seen as inconsistent with human rights norms, and for which scientific evidence and public health approaches have arguably played too limited a role. The previous UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in 1998 – convened under the theme “a drug-free world, we can do it!” – endorsed drug control policies based on the goal of prohibiting all use, possession, production, and trafficking of illicit drugs. This goal is enshrined in national law in many countries. In pronouncing drugs a “grave threat to the health and well-being of all mankind,” the 1998 UNGASS echoed the foundational 1961 convention of the international drug control regime, which justified eliminating the “evil” of drugs in the name of “the health and welfare of mankind.” But neither of these international agreements refers to the ways in which pursuing drug prohibition itself might affect public health. The “war on drugs” and “zero-tolerance” policies that grew out of the prohibitionist consensus are now being challenged on multiple fronts, including their health, human rights, and development impact. The Johns Hopkins – Lancet Commission on Drug Policy and Health has sought to examine the emerging scientific evidence on public health issues arising from drug control policy and to inform and encourage a central focus on public health evidence and outcomes in drug policy debates, such as the important deliberations of the 2016 UNGASS on drugs. The Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission is concerned that drug policies are often colored by ideas about drug use and drug dependence that are not scientifically grounded. The 1998 UNGASS declaration, for example, like the UN drug conventions and many national drug laws, does not distinguish between drug use and drug abuse. A 2015 report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, by contrast, found it important to emphasize that “[d]rug use is neither a medical condition nor does it necessarily lead to drug dependence.” The idea that all drug use is dangerous and evil has led to enforcement-heavy policies and has made it difficult to see potentially dangerous drugs in the same light as potentially dangerous foods, tobacco, alcohol for which the goal of social policy is to reduce potential harms. Health impact of drug policy based on enforcement of prohibition The pursuit of drug prohibition has generated a parallel economy run by criminal networks. Both these networks, which resort to violence to protect their markets, and the police and sometimes military ...

show abstract

“…Among non‐resident mothers a sense of shame and stigma is a common finding (Babcock, ; Bemiller, ; Elizabeth, ; Kenny, Barrington, & Green, ; Kielty, ; Kruk, ; Nixon, Radtke, & Tutty, ). This reflects the centrality of mothering as an identity and source of self‐worth, with the loss of the opportunity to care for children likened by Lynch () to being made redundant (see also Smart & Neale, ).…”

Section: Losing Care Time: Feeling Loss and Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Therapist’s Mandate?: Integrating an Ethics of Care into Custody Law by Recognising and Responding to Post‐separation Parental Loss of Connection with Children

Elizabeth

2019

ANZ J of Family Therapy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 1999 Smart and Neale published their seminal book Family Fragments, arguing for the replacement of the ethics of justice that currently informs custody law and practice with an ethics of care. Recognising loss is one of four principles they identify as being key to care-based processes for managing post-separation parenting arrangements. Here they had in mind the non-resident fathers in their study, who were often anxious, angry, and resentful about their diminished fatherhood. Yet gender-neutral custody laws and the greater prominence given to shared care across the West means that increasing numbers of separated mothers are also experiencing diminished connections to their children, either by becoming non-resident parents or through shared care arrangements. Research into post-separation fathers' and mothers' experiences of loss and grief in relation to their children is sparse and largely consists of small-scale qualitative studies focusing either on fathers or mothers. Nonetheless, these studies show that the grief talk of post-separated parents is strikingly similar, except that mothers who become non-resident parents commonly talk about a sense of stigma and shame, while fathers are more likely than mothers to resort to the language of anger and rights. Despite Smart and Neale's call roughly 20 years ago, custody law systems across the West continue to neglect parents' need for recognition and support. This paper seeks to rectify this social neglect through describing a dual program of therapeutically informed interventions with separated mothers and fathers. This is designed to recognise and respond to parental loss and grief experiences, whilst simultaneously fostering personal self-reflexivity and transformation. The latter is no easy task but is frequently an essential basis for workable co-parenting post-separation.

show abstract

“I felt for a long time like everything beautiful in me had been taken out”: Women's suffering, remembering, and survival following the loss of child custody

Cited by 85 publications

References 32 publications

Maternal health and social outcomes after having a child taken into care: population-based longitudinal cohort study using linkable administrative data

Maternal health and social outcomes after having a child taken into care: population-based longitudinal cohort study using linkable administrative data

Public health and international drug policy

A Therapist’s Mandate?: Integrating an Ethics of Care into Custody Law by Recognising and Responding to Post‐separation Parental Loss of Connection with Children

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About