Knowledge regarding the needs of parents whose children are placed in out-of-home care is still limited and studies focusing on interventions targeting this group are scarce. This article explores birth parents’ views on their needs and perceptions of support delivered by two different interventions: one offering support to individuals and the other providing a parental group. The methodology comprised a thematic analysis of 14 qualitative interviews. Parents’ expressed needs revolved around five issues: participation and influence in the relations with child welfare services; their emotional needs; their social needs; their relationship with their child; and practical and financial arrangements. The results revealed that the two interventions had overlapping as well as specific supportive functions and that these met some of the identified needs. Both programmes provided an opportunity for parents to speak openly about their grief and experiences of stigma and to receive help to cope with it, thus functioning as empowering and stigma-relieving practices that provide emotional support. The intervention that offered individual support contributed to a reduction in parents’ feelings of powerlessness when negotiating with child welfare services and functioned as an equalising practice by facilitating participation and influence. The parental group succeeded in reducing parents’ social isolation, providing social support and functioning as a normalising practice. However, neither intervention was explicitly perceived as helpful for improving parent–child relationships or practical and financial arrangements. The study highlights how the parents benefitted from receiving different types of support and contributes to knowledge about a group that has been neglected in practice and research.

中文翻译：

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支持性做法：针对儿童被安置在家庭外照料的父母的干预措施的看法

关于孩子被安置在户外护理的父母的需求的知识仍然有限，并且针对这一群体的干预措施的研究很少。本文探讨了亲生父母对两种不同干预措施所提供支持的需求和看法的看法：一种是为个人提供支持，另一种是为父母团体提供支持。该方法包括对 14 次定性访谈的专题分析。家长表达的需求围绕五个问题：参与和影响与儿童福利服务的关系；他们的情感需求；他们的社交需求；他们与孩子的关系；以及实际和财务安排。结果表明，这两种干预措施具有重叠和特定的支持功能，并且满足了一些已确定的需求。这两个项目都为父母提供了一个机会，让他们公开谈论他们的悲痛和耻辱的经历，并获得帮助来应对它，从而起到增强能力和减轻耻辱感的作用，提供情感支持。提供个人支持的干预有助于减轻父母在与儿童福利服务谈判时的无能为力感，并通过促进参与和影响力发挥了平等作用。家长小组成功地减少了家长的社会孤立感，提供了社会支持并起到了正常化实践的作用。然而，这两种干预措施都没有被明确认为有助于改善亲子关系或实际和财务安排。