Keeping Parent and Child Close
Parents can face many barriers to visitation when their child is in foster placement. While their child is cared for by another family, it can be difficult to coordinate sufficient visitation time. But it’s important for parent and child to have regular visitation while the child is in foster placement because of the many benefits it can provide.
Visitation can help the child cope better with the changes in their life. Having regular contact with their parents can help them better deal with the separation and with getting used to a new family. It can also help maintain the parent-child bond despite challenging circumstances. Neglecting this bond while the child is in foster placement can make reunification much more difficult for both parent and child. Sometimes parents do not visit their child in foster placement because of feelings of guilt, shame, or inadequacy as a parent. Despite these feelings, it’s often better for the parent to visit the child than to check out of his or her life.
Visitation can also help increase the chance of reunification. Regular visitation can demonstrate the parent’s dedication to the child’s well being to child welfare caseworkers and the court. This can go a long way toward helping reunification efforts. When a parent fails to visit his or her child in foster placement, it can work against the parent’s wishes to be reunified.
When a parent wants to visit with his or her child but struggles to coordinate it with the foster family and the DCP&P, that parent might need an advocate. Child welfare cases are complex. Visitation is just one component, but it can affect reunification efforts, so it is often in the parent’s best interest to speak with an experienced attorney about what he or she can do to get more contact with the child. Coordinating visitation involves the parent, the child, the foster family, and the DCP&P, so it’s difficult to accomplish. But having an experienced New Jersey child welfare attorney by your side can help ensure your right to visit your child is defended, and you have the best chance at reunification possible.
Do you want to visit with your child? The knowledgeable attorneys at the Williams Law Group, LLC can defend your rights and help you get the visitation with your child you deserve. Located in Union, New Jersey, Williams Law Group, LLC provides compassionate and dedicated legal services to Union, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Monmouth, and Middlesex counties, and the surrounding areas. Our knowledgeable attorneys handle divorce and family law, child custody, and child abuse/neglect cases. Call our office at (908) 810-1083, email us at info@awilliamslawgroup.com, or contact us through our confidential online form to schedule a consultation and ultimately get you connected with an experienced New Jersey divorce and child custody attorney.