Grieving is a natural reaction to a major loss. In foster care, grieving can be experienced at different times of the care situation by everyone involved--the birth parents, the child, the foster parents, and members of the foster family. Yet this grief is often denied or hidden. Join Charley Joyce, a Licensed Independent Social Worker and Clinical Director of PATH, Inc. of North Dakota, as he explores the issues surrounding grief and loss.

This course reviews the stages of grief, how the various members in a foster care situation grieve, and tools for regaining a sense of balance and acceptance after a separation. The discussion segment helps the viewer understand the differences between complex grief and normal grief, and when to seek professional help.

Adding a foster child to the family shakes up existing roles and routines. Birth children may be excited about having a new child in the home and at the same time resent the attention their parents give to the new child. Those feelings begin before the foster child arrives, when foster parents are busy with meetings and preparations and birth children begin to feel what it will be like to share their parents.

This class discusses the challenges families face pre-placement, during placement, and post-placement and offers insights and advice for helping birth children through those challenges. The course touches on how fostering affects birth children in their late teens or early 20s who no longer live in the home full-time.