Rise Magazine

In When the Misdiagnosis Is Child Abuse, published in The Atlantic and The Marshall Project, journalist Stephanie Clifford reported about child abuse pediatricians — doctors who are trained to determine whether kids’ injuries are accidental or inflicted. In most cases, these conclusions can’t be made with certainty — but the child welfare system often takes them as fact. As Clifford documented, this has resulted in the unnecessary separation of families, incarceration of parents who have not harmed their children and trauma for both children and parents.

Here, Clifford discusses her reporting process and what she learned from parents, as well as the role of power dynamics, racism and classism in these situations. She shares recommendations for change and for how parents can protect themselves from a false accusation.

Here, parent advocate and CEO of Re-Unify Family Solutions, Heather Cantamessa describes her own long journey to be valued for her work, and to be compensated accordingly. Her story is featured in the Building a Parent Advocacy Organization section of the Toolkit for Transformation.

Scotland’s Parent Advocacy and Rights organization (PAR) began in 2016 as an alliance between parents impacted by the child welfare system and independent social workers created to provide individual advocacy to parents, raise awareness of the debilitating stigma of child welfare involvement and advocate for more just, less punitive policies to address family issues related to poverty, mental health and domestic violence.

Jaquie Mayne and Debbie Henderson, Community Development Officer and Executive Officer of The Family Inclusion Network of Western Australia, reflect on the broad range of emotional supports FIN WA offers to its family partners to address the impact of past trauma and current work challenges.