
Course Summary
In this course, you can expect to learn:
- About ambiguous loss and complicated grief
- Unique challenges foster youth face through the grieving process
- Understand how grief and trauma can manifest in a young person's behavior
- Strategies a young person can use to cope with ambiguous loss and/or grief

Step 1
Watch the following video "Best Practices for Grief: Foster Care Placement," this video is a part of a series examining grief and loss experiences of children and teens, and was selected because of the valuable introduction it provides about young peoples' grief in foster care:

Step 2
The effects of grief that children in foster care experience vary by the developmental age of the child. Review the following article published by Fostering Perspectives, "The Effects of Grief and Loss on Children in Foster Care", to learn what grief signs to be aware of for all children.

Step 3
Review the following article "Ambiguous Loss Haunts Foster and Adopted Children", to learn about the inevitable loss a young person experiences during their foster care experience (sometimes over and over again) and how incredibly difficult this type of grief is to process.

Step 4
Gregory Manning discusses the difference between a traditional and non-traditional loss and how the profound loss and trauma a young person in foster care experiences manifests and impacts their behaviors in the following video "Grief and Loss for Youth in Foster Care & Adoption":

Step 5
Watch Matthew's video which reflects the trauma, grief, and loss he dealt with throughout his foster care experience.

Step 6
Review "What Young People Can Do: Healing From Loss", a simple form to help guide and validate a young person healing from loss.

Step 7
Share the "Bill of Rights for Grieving Youth in Foster Care" tool with your child. These Rights reflect the values, dreams, and aspirations of current and former foster youth suffering from tremendous loss and can be helpful to a grieving young person and/or a young person who has not yet begun the grieving process.

Step 8
Join the discussion in the comments below to answer the following question:
How can you help young people in your care suffering from grief and loss?
Course Discussion
Ryguythesciguy said:
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pamratvasky@gma... said:
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Danica248 said:
Robin2ce said: