When a child is found missing. Either it is a runaway case or an abduction case, the trauma experienced by the child and his family members s in explicable. The child undergoes substantial psychological and emotional distress. The parents might lose their power of rational decision making under tremendous psychological pressure. Under these circumstances the response generated by the team consisting of multiple community agencies is of great solace to the family members.   

The primary organizations or professionals needed in the recovery and reunification of missing children include law enforcement (involving the FBI in some cases), family and dependency court personnel, child protective or social service, mental health professionals, and victim-witness advocates.

The search and reunification team help the family members to obtain information about the circumstances of the abduction or runaway episode, the possibility of other individuals involvement, and possible criminal acts. The recovery team also helps the family in securing any physical evidence necessary for the investigation. The recovery team also decides the factors required for the case investigation to be provided to the public. And finally it also aids other agencies and media in briefing the status of the recovered child and family.

In most cases the behavior of the family members and its level of maturity will decide its ability to cope with the abduction itself and the recovery and reunification of the child. Thus it is the responsibility of the professionals involved with the reunification to assess the needs of the family and make every effort to help the family meet all of those needs in a responsive, successful, proficient, and efficient way.

The child needs time to make a transition to the situations around them, especially in family abduction cases where children are made to believe that left-behind family members could pose a danger to them after their return. The recovery team, which also consists of mental health professionals need to take the time necessary to make accurate assessments and careful decisions about the well being of the child. The officer should always be prepared for alternative placement of the child and have available resources standing by.