Practical Support for Children with a Mother in Prison: Reflections from a Practitioner
ISBN: 978-1-78973-344-0, eISBN: 978-1-78973-343-3
Publication date: 16 September 2020
Abstract
The chapter centres on a practitioners' experience of supporting children affected by maternal imprisonment for over a decade in Liverpool, Merseyside in the United Kingdom.
Using the data derived from my PhD ‘Bubbles, Brick Walls and Connectivity’, I offer ‘whole families’ experiences of support systems including their experience of statutory services, nonstatutory services, family and friends and ‘Good Practice’ suggestions are proffered.
Consideration is given to what support can look like, the successes and the challenges. Attention is paid to how to help children who have contact with their mothers and how this help might differ to children for whom contact has been severed.
The chapter also focusses on supporting children and families post release and the challenges of engaging the mother in the service. Stories which highlight how the mother/child relationship can become fragmented/disrupted, either prior to or owing to imprisonment, are shared.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the parents and children who informed this research. Thank you for your openness, for trusting me and for all the times we have shared; I sincerely hope your voices will be heard. To Liverpool Hope University, a former employer who partnered with IMPACT research (Innovation Means Prisons and Communities Together); together you made it possible for me to access so many mothers in prison who contributed profoundly to my learning about the needs of children of prisoners. To PSS (Person Shaped Support) who enabled the development of my early work with children of prisoners to take shape; to UCLAN (with specific acknowledgements to my supervisory team, Bernie Carter, Helen Codd and Deborah Jackson) without whom my PhD study would not have been possible and to Liverpool John Moores University who continue to champion my ongoing work in this field.
Citation
Brookes, L. (2020), "Practical Support for Children with a Mother in Prison: Reflections from a Practitioner", Lockwood, K. (Ed.) Mothering from the Inside, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 163-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-343-320201012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020 Lorna Brookes. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited