In the final installment of my summary of this amazing report, the last section deals with educating adoptive parents.

Interestingly, the first bullet point under this section is to educate adoption PROFESSIONALS. I love that. Not only do they feel that adoption professionals need to be educated, but they list out sixteen specific bullet points, including:

• Role of racial and adoptive identity
• Mental health issues in adoption
• Role of loss and grief in adoption

And my personal favorite….

• Awareness of community resources relevant for parent preparation, education and support

Now, there is a very important piece of information. How can you direct a family to the resources they need, if you don’t know what they are yourself?

The rest of the bullet points go specifically toward parents, but I don’t think any of them are out of line.

Education of Parents Mandatory and On-going – Foster parents are required to continue their education in order to maintain their foster care license. I’m not sure it should be all that different with adoptive parents. Our kids are tough to handle with issues that most parents don’t ever have to face. Keeping up with current treatments, medications, therapies and parenting styles can only help everyone involved. When I started this “type” of parenting nine years ago, I had no idea the knowledge that I would need today.


Utilize a Multi-Method, Multi-Source Approach to Parent Preparation and Education – This is a far fancier title than it needs to be. Basically it means that parents should have access to different types of education. Just as kids have different types of learning, so do adults. We also have different time limitations depending on our family dynamic. The report says that parents should have access to in-person classes, group meetings, DVDs or videos, along with learning from different people. Talking with birth parents, adoptees and other professionals can lend great insight into our kids and what they are going through.

Provide an Objective and Balanced View of Adoption – Hmmm… objective and balanced, I wonder why they would put that in there? I’m not saying that adoption doesn’t have “warm, fuzzy” stories, but when they are the only ones portrayed, people can have a fantasy vision of what life might be like. At the same time, when foster children are portrayed as mentally disturbed, we may be scaring away potential parents. Let’s try presenting both sides of the story and letting parents make an educated decision on what they can handle.

Create a Receptive Atmosphere for Parent Preparation and Education – We addressed these issues in the blog about parent education. This goes to making parents feel comfortable and not defensive when they first begin the process, and along the way when expectations and reality collide.

The last point is again directed at professionals..

Educate Mental Health Professionals – HALLELUIAH! Someone is finally acknowledging that there are mental health professionals who “don’t get” our kids. We spent two years with a psychiatrist who would write six months worth of refills for Sammy and ask me what medications I wanted him on. I thought that was the job of the psychiatrist. Most mental health professionals don’t get the impact our kids’ lives on their mental health. They don’t understand trauma, or the effects of child abuse or witnessing domestic violence. One of the recommendations of the report is to create an adoption certification program for mental health professionals. I love this. It would make it so much easier for parents to find appropriate help for their children.

The final part of the report lists a number of resources, as well as additional topics for potential adoptive parents, or even parents who already have a placement, to investigate. The topics are wonderful and can give parents something to think about.

Part 1

Part 2

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