Suchergebnisse

Adoptive parents face role conflicts and problems that are different from those faced by biological parents. It is important that adoptive parents acknowledge these differences. Those who do acknowledge these differences are more receptive to opening the sealed record.

The advent of changing adoption legislation, policy and practice is impacting on all people touched by the adoption experience. Open adoption is now considered to be best practice. In South Australia adoption legislation was changed in 1988. All adoption records were made available retrospectively to adopted people and birth parents unless a five-year veto was placed by either the birth parent or adopted person requesting no contact with the 'seeker'. As a consequence to these changes, the role of adoptive parents has changed considerably. This change has not been adequately planned for and adoptive parents have few supports in redefining their role in the adoption experience. Susan Mann presents a practitioner's view of the experiences of adoptive parents with recommendations about how to create a more positive and productive dialogue among all parties affected by varying adoption practices. Confidentiality is maintained throughout the paper by the use of pseudonyms.

At the suggestion of service users, Oxfordshire Social Services recently commissioned an experimental 'parenting course' for their newly approved adopters. Facilitators Liz Gilkes and Ivana Klimes discuss this project, which was run for Oxfordshire Adopters by the Family Nurturing Network, an organisation now well established in Oxfordshire. The course offered a programme for parents to learn how to best support their children's development and learning, how to manage difficult behaviour and foster self-esteem, and how to care for their own needs. It was evaluated by means of a questionnaire completed by all participants. The results were so overwhelmingly positive that Oxfordshire Social Services now plan to offer these courses as a rolling programme to all their new adopters.

The changing nature of adoption means that more children being placed have experienced traumas that are likely to affect their educational progress. This is manifest in the raised levels of special educational needs among adopted children. Yet, the benefits of educational fulfilment are especially pertinent for such children, given their disadvantaged backgrounds. This summary of a survey of adoptive parents by Pauline Cooper and Sandra Johnson reveals some satisfaction with existing arrangements but highlights areas for improvement. These include giving parents better information on their child's educational needs and their future implications, sharing information more effectively between parents and teachers, increasing teachers' awareness of the needs of adopted children, dealing with children's unhappiness in school, especially bullying, and facilitating children's and parents' access to specialist help.