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There is a fantastic report out by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. If you are not familiar with them, take the time to check out their website.
The report calls adoption agencies, post adoptions services, social workers, mental health providers and many other adoption professionals on the carpet for not adequately helping kids and families alike. I was blown away. It’s not often that you see a report this honest about where the holes are in the adoption “industry.”
The eighteen page report sites specific places where it feels that adoptive families and children are being let down. One of the first points is the lack of education, and they’re not just talking about pre-adoptive education, but education across the board.
Rightfully so, they state that social workers, and adoption agency staff need more training both while in school and as their careers continue. I couldn’t agree more. The majority of people who are placing children for adoption have no personal experience in adoption at all. You cannot fully understand the life of adoption until you live it, especially if you are dealing with a child who has a traumatic history in their lives.
Another area that the report points out is that there is little education about the birth parents and their feelings and needs when placing a child for adoption. Granted, in the case of foster children parents are generally not voluntarily placing the child, but there are emotions involved all the same.
To an extent I can understand the pain of those parents, having lost two children that I wanted to remain in my home. My heart broke horribly and I have some concept of what it’s like to involuntarily lose a child, but my loss is not the same. How can the workers placing a child begin to understand the heartache that a parent goes through while making an adoption plan if it’s voluntary, and possibly having their child physically taken from their arms if it’s involuntary?
They also point out the lack of pre-adoptive education for parents, along with the lack of information given to adoptive parents that is essential to a successful placement of a child. Information like placement history, birth family history, medical history and so on. And what about relatives who are taking in a child? This will change the dynamics in their family, and just because they are a family member does not mean that they will understand, or know how to deal with the trauma that this child has been through. I fully agree with trying to keep a child within a birth family if at all possible, but we need to properly equip the relative that is taking in that child.
The other thing that just kills me about kinship placement is that the relative is not entitled to the same subsidy as a foster parent. One of my friends has a kinship placement and she receives $250 a month. Why should she receive less? She’s still dealing with plenty of emotional issues, as well as the same financial needs for food, clothing and shelter as a foster parent.
I will have more blogs coming on this report. There is too much “meat” in this report to cover it all in one blog.
