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Previous research identifies the increased exposure of birth children of foster carers to experiences of separation, grief, and loss due to the transient nature of foster care, but little is known about how birth children manage this loss. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study that examined the retrospective experiences of 15 adult birth children of foster carers (aged between 18 and 28 years) in Ireland. Findings suggest that birth children experience grief and loss when foster children leave their families. They report experiencing a range of emotional responses such as guilt, blame, and sadness. A reluctance to discuss their emotional responses with either their parents or foster care professionals was also reported. Instead, birth children developed strategies to manage the loss, such as distancing themselves from the foster care process. The study highlights the importance of social workers and foster carers explaining to birth children why foster children are leaving and, where possible, maintaining contact between birth children and foster children. Additionally, findings indicate the need for birth children to have safe nonjudgmental spaces to discuss their emotional reactions to loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article aims to understand moral distress in carers of people with an intellectual disability during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Method: Nine staff carers of seven people with an intellectual disability, who had been participants of the IDS‐TILDA study in Ireland, who died during the COVID‐19 pandemic participated in in‐depth, semi‐structured telephone interviews. Template analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Results: Obstructions in performing their duties left carers feeling powerless and experiencing moral conflict distress, moral constraint distress and moral uncertainty distress. Most managed to connect to the moral dimension in their work through peer support, understanding they fulfilled the wishes of the deceased, and/or thinking about how they or others did the best they could for the person they were caring for. Conclusions: This research demonstrates that while restrictions may have been effective in reducing the spread of COVID‐19, they were potentially damaging to carer wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]