Child in Pieces: Child Welfare: Assessment and Outlook, Pierre Verdier

Too often, children "placed" in care by social services face tragic instability. Dispossessed of a past that is hidden from them and deprived of a future they do not choose, they are moved from foster home to family, from foster family to social institution, from social institution to specialized institution... ten, twenty times. Uprooted, fragmented, here is a being for whom nothing lasts and who, as a result, has difficulty forming an identity. A leading specialist in the functioning of child welfare, Pierre Verdier first traces its historical evolution. The legislation, its application (or non-application), the ideology, practice, and results of child welfare are then presented, analyzed, and illustrated with concrete cases and figures. Finally, in a mindset that is by no means utopian but resolutely geared towards a different practice, the author shows what child welfare could be like tomorrow. In this book, which has become a classic, Pierre Verdier appeals to the reflective power of social workers, educators, and child welfare officials. He demonstrates that for separations to be constructive, they must not be ruptures, so that the separated child can become a full-fledged adult.