This suggests that more frequent parent-child visitation may be associated with shorter foster care stays. Parent-Social Worker Contact . White and colleagues also found an interesting relationship between the frequency of contacts social workers had with parents and how often parents saw their children. Parents of children in care less than 20 months had 2.49 contacts with their social worker per month, compared to 1.55 contacts per month for parents of children in care greater than 20 months. This seems to suggest that social workers have some influence over visitation patterns and, indirectly, family outcomes.
Many agencies are well-equipped to establish and facilitate visitation programs.
However, some are not. Following are some suggestions for assessing and enhancing visitation in your agency and practice. The first step in facilitating visitation should be to set up a regular, written visitation schedule. Since they are essential to visits, birth and foster parents should be directly involved in setting up visitation schedules. Involving them and respecting their preferences for visit times and locations demonstrates to parents that they are important members of the team.