By Deborah Gray, MSW, MPA
Introduction
Adoption touches most Americans. All of us seem to have a neighbor, family member, or friend, who has been part of an adoption experience. And many of us are part of an adoption triad—the term for the interrelationship between people who were adopted, their birthparents, or adoptive parents. Social workers are pivotal in helping families through the transitions in adoptions. What is adoption like today, and how do social workers help with adoption?
Overview of Adoption Today
Adoption is changing rapidly, mirroring our society. Adoption practices need to be inclusive– respectful of diverse families. Families may be adopting age ranges from infancy to adolescence. Transracial adoptions are becoming more common. People with disabilities are both adopting and adopted. Many birth relatives are continuing to ask for, and to receive, information on their adopted child or children. Social workers can help families involved in adoption by providing support and information regarding the ethical, legal cultural, and emotional issues they may face.
Adoptions After Foster Care
Children are being adopted from the foster care system in increasing rates. There is a strong public policy drive to place children into permanent families if they cannot be returned to a safe, biologic relative. Supports for children who are placed after maltreatment must be intentionally designed. Social workers are instrumental in predicting necessary resources for children, as well as helping to access those resources so that families will be successful.
The effects of multiple foster care placements on attachment, education, and psychosocial functioning have been raised as an advocacy issue by social workers. The drive for permanent families and a shorter time in the foster care system are both initiatives propelled by social workers. They have demonstrated that by the time legal determination has been made on custody, a large proportion of children have been emotionally damaged by multiple moves.
There are over one half million children in our foster care system. While many of these children can return to birth relatives, over 125,000 are available for adoption. The average age at which these children entered foster care was four-years-old. They remain in foster care an average of 44 months. The average foster child becomes available for adoption by age eight.
There is a social work led drive to help children to become legally free for adoption or returned to readied birthparents with two years, so that children are not living for years with the painful uncertainty of not knowing who their family will be. As children get older, even if they are legally free for adoption, families are less interested in adopting them.
International Adoption
The countries from which people are adopting internationally have expanded. Almost a quarter of a million children have entered our country through international adoption over the last 10 years — triple the number of international adoptions of the previous decade. Children adopted from outside the United States have cross-cultural issues of which families need to be aware. Like children from our domestic foster care system, many have health and educational issues when arriving after neglect or trauma. The estimated rate of prenatal exposure to substance is about one in four children entering from Eastern Europe.
Many families want to help their children become culturally connected to their countries of origin so they can complete their identities. And, like the parents of children adopted from within the United States, parents of children adopted internationally are describing the special support that teens need in completing their identities using discussions and information.
Infant Adoption
Adoption continues to be a way in which families are built through infant adoption. People who are making an adoption plan for their unborn babies are much more likely to request continuing information and/or contact about the well being of the child. And, birthparents frequently help choose the families who will adopt and parent their babies. Social workers assist birthparents in the process of determining whether or not adoption is an appropriate plan. Then they provide information and options about the amount of continuing contact with the adoptive family. Social workers support the grief process in relinquishing birthparents. They advocate for ethical decisions that are in the best interests of all the members of the adoption triad, but especially the best interests of the child. Social workers also work to help older children, especially those of color, to be adopted.
Drug and Alcohol Exposure
Drug and alcohol exposure prenatally, as well as neglect post-natally, have impacted many children’s behavioral and educational processes. Careful attention to the design of home environments and school systems enable children, with accommodations, to have much better outcomes in both educational and social arenas. These educational and family methods are often referred to, taught, and/or designed with social work assistance. Because of these interventions, it is common to hear of drug- exposed children who attend college, move into successful vocations, and take an active role in their families and communities. Outcome studies have also demonstrated the role that counseling has in helping children who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol. Social workers are frequently the counselors.
Psychosocial Supports
The role of attachment in children who are placed after the newborn period is a special emphasis in adoption today. Adoptive parents are being trained in special techniques that promote bonding and attachment with children who may have lacked opportunities to attach in the past, who are grieving for parents they have lost through placement, or who are frightened of adults due to abuse. There is a now a best practices preventative approach in promoting attachments, so that children establish close, exclusive, and mutually enjoyable relationships with their families. Bonding techniques are being taught by social workers in adoption classes or through educational materials.
Researchers have determined that with other issues being held constant, adoption does not predict lower psychosocial functioning or difficulty with attachment. However, It does mean that adoptees will need extra help in defining themselves, especially by teen years. Research show that families who are open in discussing adoption issues assist their children/teens in this developmental task.
Literature
There is a well-developed literature, adoption specific, that guides ethical and research-based practices in adoption. Much of this literature has been created through the field of social work. Social workers, many of whom are part of an adoption triad, are both conversant with this literature and contributors to the literature. The literature continues to promote the need for post-placement services for members of the adoption triad.
Magazines and newsletters for families are abundant. Leading ones are Adoption Today, Fostering Families Today, and Adoptive Families Today.
Social Workers Help Assess and Prepare Families for Placement
Homestudies are completed on every adoptive family. The homestudy is an interviewing and educational process in which families are assessed to determine whether they can provide a safe and nurturing home. It is also an opportunity to provide adoption-specific information to families. It helps them to position themselves realistically in determining potential needs of children and their resources to meet those needs.
Social workers complete the homestudies and help acquaint families with adoption issues during the homestudy process. The homestudy process helps families to make realistic decisions including whether they can care for one child, a sibling group, or children with special needs. They explore such concepts as continuing contact with birthfamilies, the lifelong identity processes of adoptive family members, transracial or transcultural adoption, and their own strengths, limitations, and expectations.
Social Workers Provide Expertise in Placing Children
Social workers assess children’s needs as part of the preparation for placement into adoptive families. They interview children before placement, determining the types of families in which children would do best. In domestic adoptions, they describe to older children why they are being placed. In infant adoption, they work with birthparents and adoptive families in determining a good fit between the degree of openness in the adoption that both are comfortable with. They help with adoption planning so that all members are treated with respect and that the adoption is legal and ethical.
When children come into placements, they need careful and sensitive information about what is happening to them. Social workers are trained to know the fears, grief, and typical adjustments that children have during the placement process. They help children to overcome some of these challenges through a series of visits after placement. When children have behavioral issues and are hesitant to attach, which are normal initial adjustment problems, social workers can help children and families with strategies and support. They also can refer the family for the additional counseling that best meets the family’s needs as the child and family get to know each other better. Clinical social workers are often the treatment providers.
Social Workers Help Post-Placement
The need for support for families lasts long after the adoption is completed. Post-placement services are necessary to help children gain access to services that will help them to experience success and mastery.
Who Can Be an Adoptive Parent?
People who can provide a safe, nurturing home, meeting the emotional and physical needs of children can adopt. Myths are that people must be young, a heterosexual couple, and economically well off. In fact, not only are those families adopting, but single parents, over-50 parents and gay and lesbian families are adopting. Our society is diverse, as are the adoption agencies that families determine to work with. Because adoption is such a personal decision, families may decide to work with a private agency consonant with their faith perspective. Other families use an agency that specializes in bringing children from countries from which they want to adopt. Publicly run agencies are the choice of other families, who appreciate the chance to work with a defined system that is publicly supported. Because of the Internet, there are now specific Internet groups that will allow parents to give and receive mutual support in specific areas relevant to their situations. Simply type in the key words into the search engine, and a plethora of topics, with links, will start the process of investigating adoption or supports.
Deborah Gray can be reached at (206) 819-2017.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Association of Social Workers or its members.
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