Supportive Visitation is planned, face-to-face contact between a child in out-of-home care and his/her parents and siblings. Frequent visiting has been found to contribute to psychosocial benefits to children in placement. Secure and stable attachments with a primary caregiver form the foundation for a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Children who develop secure attachments show a greater capacity for self-regulation, effective social interactions, self-reliance, and adaptive coping skills later in life.
Supportive Visitation Workers’ responsibilities include a wide range of activities related to visiting, including planning visits and making arrangements for visits with parents, children, foster parents and others; preparing participants for visits; transporting children and parents to visits; supervising visits; documenting what occurred in and subsequent to visits; processing clients’ and others’ reactions to visits; assessing family progress through visits; and intervening during the visit as necessary to model appropriate nurturing behavior for parents.
