US: The Need to Prioritize Relational Health (Opinion)
Imprint – July 11, 2023
Child welfare in the United States is both a symptom and a cause of relational poverty. As a symptom, it reflects what can happen when families are socially isolated and without the necessary social capital or resources to help them through adversity. As a cause, it erodes family integrity. With intention, laws have been crafted to punish vulnerability, expedite the severance of family relationships and incentivize the redistribution of other people’s children. Less than half of children separated from their parents to foster care ever return home. Discriminatory rules and policies disqualify families from doing what families do best – care for their loved ones. The “better safe than sorry” mentality toward child safety continues to preempt a child’s sense of connection and belonging to their family, community and culture. This is a direct threat to the well-being of children and youth and jeopardizes their relational, physical, mental, and spiritual health. Relational health – the sense of connection, belonging and relationships that people have – is essential to our individual and collective well-being as human beings in the world. Somehow, however, this most essential and defining aspect of being human has been overshadowed or cast aside in the industry known as child welfare.
https://imprintnews.org/opinion/the-need-to-prioritize-relational-health/242912