Haunted Mothers: Unmet Need and Child Removal

This resource explores the lived experience of mothers who have had a child – or children – removed from them, and their often complex lives. You'll consider a trauma- and culturally-informed perspective, how the limitations of policy and resources can lead to women falling through the gaps in services, and learn more about what works to keep mothers and their children together.

Description

When facing child removal, mothers with multiple unmet needs find themselves at the centre of a system that they believe doesn’t understand them - and often fails them. For mothers who are having a child/children removed as a result of homelessness or housing instability, the pain, loss and sense of injustice is compounded when the cause of their homelessness is a consequence of fleeing domestic abuse and/or intimate partner violence.

A 2024 research paper by Dr Sadie Parr, from Sheffield Hallam University, explored the experiences of women in this position. Her use of the concept of haunting and the theory of ‘hauntology’, building on the work of Lisa Morriss, provided a powerful lens through which to engage, and empathise, with the experiences of women who have had a child, or children removed from them.

This replay presents an opportunity to pause and reflect on the needs of mothers. You will be asked to consider a trauma and culturally informed perspective, the limitations of resources and policy, how those limitations can lead to women falling through the gaps in services, and to learn more about what works to keep mothers and their children together. Expect to feel motivated to challenge and disrupt the systemic forces that may lead to mothers having their children removed.

These resources will help you:

• Understand the systemic, historic and cultural factors that create the conditions for child removal
• Deepen your empathy for women experiencing child removal through the theoretical and philosophical lens of hauntology
• Understand where gaps exist between services and how these might be addressed
• See the links between domestic abuse, intimate partner violence and homelessness, and how the relationship between these factors is vital when understanding what can lead to child removal for women with multiple unmet needs
• Enhance what it means to be person-centred, gender, trauma and culturally informed
• Explore how you might ‘show up’ with humanity and empathy in interactions with mothers experiencing child removal, in safe, productive ways for your practice
• Challenge yourself and others to shift perspective, and to use this shift to advocate for mothers experiencing child removal in your workplace, teams and across interactions with other services

Further reading