Reunion versus Reintegration

When talking about children leaving institutions (or other alternative care placements) and going to live with their own family again two words are generally used: reuniting with the family and reintegrating into the family. These terms have been used before in the blogs as well, particularly with regards to children suddenly being returned to their families during pandemic lockdowns. Some people use these two words as if they mean the same thing but they do not. It is very important – particularly to the children – to understand the difference between the two.

Reuniting a child with his family, organising a reunion of the family, the reunification of the child with his family all refer to delivering the child back to the family. While this sounds great – and is certainly part of the aim – it is not enough. Only taking a child from an institution (or another previous placement) and dropping him off at his family home is not going to give the child or the family much chance of success to create a ‘happily ever after’ together.

Without a carefully investigated and thought out individual care plan, preparation of the child, preparation, training and guidance for the family, and a period during which the child and the family can get to know each other better again before starting to live together, the chances of problems arising out of stress and challenging behaviour leading to a placement breakdown are high. If the reasons behind the child having been placed in an institution or other placement have not been addressed, they are likely to still exist and to lead to the same outcome. And if there is no continued monitoring and support once the child is back with his family, small issues can easily become big and lead to placement breakdown.

In other words, when there is only a reunion of a child and his family, the chance is high that there will be a placement breakdown and that the child will be unable to stay with his family. The experience of having to leave his family again is an extremely traumatic one for the child. And so reunification should not be the aim.

The aim needs to be reintegration. Meaning that the preparation, planning, training, guidance, support, and monitoring needed are provided to help the child really find his place inside the family again and help the family cope with having the child as part of their group again. When the child is reintegrated into the family, the chance of placement breakdown becomes much smaller and the chance of happily ever after much higher.

So don’t leave it at reunion, aim for reintegration of children into their families.

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