Rapid review of clinical reunification intervention to families

Abstract

Family reunification intervention is globally considered to be at the centre of meaningful child welfare practice. If a child has been removed from the care of his/her birth parents, safe and timely family reunification should be the main goal. The purpose of this type of intervention is to restore the well-being of disrupted families to assist them to regain self-reliance and optimal social functioning. Reunification interventions, when applied accurately, have the potential to prevent an increase in and reduce the number of children remaining in alternative care until they age out of care. In achieving such a goal, the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 requires the designated social workers to render therapeutic services that are clinical in nature. However, the Act does not stipulate how such services should be provided or what their content should be. In light of this, this research aims to firstly conduct a rapid review of literature about what is known about the clinical content of reunification intervention rendered to families, and, secondly, to make recommendations to the academic community and the child welfare system regarding the enhancement of programmes and policies to address the clinical content of family reunification interventions. Study design and method: A rapid review was the method used to obtain knowledge in a shorter period than what is normally required for a systematic review. The study used the steps described by Dobbins (2017). Results and discussion: While a review of the literature indicated that the exact nature of the clinical content of reunification intervention rendered to families is not clear, the empirical evidence suggests that the clinical content of reunification intervention provided to families comprises of engagement, parental visiting and contact, parenting capacity building, and support groups. In addition, supporting birth parents with concrete resources like transportation and stable housing was found to be an extra intervention that supports successful reunification.