In NASW’s latest episode of Social Work Talks, sponsored by Illinois Department of DCFS, we converse with the Maryland Office of Public Defenders about their Office of Reentry Services. With the help of social workers on staff, it focuses on helping incarcerated individuals re-enter society—and provides them with resources so they can get a fresh start in becoming productive members of their communities. This is thanks to the help of the Second Chance Act.

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For more than 30 years, Rita Soronen, President and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has worked on behalf of abused, neglected and vulnerable children, providing leadership for local, state and national efforts working to improve the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Leading the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national, nonprofit public charity, since 2001 and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-Canada since 2004, Ms. Soronen works to find forever families for the more than 140,000 waiting children in North America’s foster care systems.

Imagine this scene. You are sitting in your office when a call comes in. A man and his wife are on the line. The wife says she was given your name from someone who thought you could help. Their adult children have not spoken to them for 10 months. They have pleaded, cajoled, and apologized for all past transgressions hoping they can make amends and, yet no amount of remorse can stop the pain of being disconnected. The husband says, “We miss our children. We miss our grandchildren. What can we do?” This scenario is an example of an emotional cut-off. Family disengagement and emotional splinters are trending upward for a variety of reasons. Our special guest, Margaret Otto, LSCSW and co-founder and director of KC Center for Families and Organizational Systems, offers insight regarding understanding the dynamics associated with emotional cut-offs and how they precipitate transgenerational impact.