Psychological Consequences for Children of Incarcerated Parents - Dr. Barbara Pickering

And she was screaming and screaming and screaming 'cause my mum had the cat over top of the [balcony] and was hanging it and saying, if I can't have fucking gerbils, this fucking cat's going to ... [...] In addition to honouring the very loud details of the arrest stories and other traumatic experiences, I adopted the role of co-editor to draw attention to instances of wisdom, strength, and resilience. [...] Like not knowing where money was gonna come from, not like figuring out how in the hell I was gonna get the money to go to university, … I just kept pushing through and pushing through and pushing through and it was anger that motivated me through a majority of that. [...] It became clear that the difficulty of recruitment for this inquiry reflected the influence of stigma and shame as a hallmark of the parental incarceration experience. [...] Focusing on significant and supportive relationships, helping children find a semblance of “normal”, making sure that they are informed as to the whereabouts of their parents are a few of the ways people in contact with these children can help mitigate the effects.