The Experience of Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service Staff Working with Mothers Who Have Had Their Children Removed

Table 1

Superordinate and subordinate themes.

Superordinate themes	Subordinate themes
Complexity and tension within working relationships	Duality of role: “I felt like I was really part of that child being removed”
	Response to removal: “become an absolute pest, you know …a good pest”
	Conflict with the wider system: “we are not compatible with them”
Emotional experiences and attempts to resolve them	Emotional impact and empathy: “my world would be destroyed if anybody took my children”
	Complexity within attempts to cope: “I don’t mean you become desensitised...”