Child-Supervised Visitation in Practice

The safety of social workers during child-supervised visitation came into the spotlight in South Africa in 2013 when renowned musician, Zirk Bergh, killed social worker Deon Kondos. Bergh also killed his ex-wife, her new husband and himself, during a child-supervised visit that went terribly wrong.

Research indicates that the increased need for child-supervised visitation is a worldwide phenomenon.

A child-supervised visitation offers a safe setting for contact between a non-custodial parent and one or more children, in the presence of a third person who is responsible for observing and ensuring the safety of those involved. The role of child-supervised visitation providers is becoming an increasingly valued form of assistance to judges in solving the problems of dysfunctional families and in protecting vulnerable family members during complex child custody litigation.

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (The NYSPCC) believes that all professional visitation supervisors need to be qualified for their role. The inclusion of training content such as domestic violence, child physical and sexual abuse, mental illness, substance abuse and the impact of these on children is crucial. Since the paramount focus of supervised visitations within the context of custody disputes is to shelter the children from inter-parental conflict and maintain consistent contact with non-custodial parents, supervisors need formal training in dealing with high conflict separation, as found within social work training.