Reform and the Social worker (currently working for an agency)?

Question

Should there be reform the moves the adoption process into the hands of the people currently doing adoption, surely current adoption social workers would be first pick to fill those positions.

I would think that this would be a positive thing for many adoption social workers. There would be more accountability for their actions giving people who truely just want to find homes for babies that need them, a leg up.

Also the benefits to being a federal employee are countless. Great retirement, health/life ins., TSP contributions, regular pay increase, FMLA protection, There are many more.

What are some other benefits or flaws to having the adoption system, handled through the foster care system?

Answer 1

If we wanted to move all Adoption Work into the Foster Care Adoption program Lets FIX the Foster Care and State Adoption Program First!

While I do have a degree in Social Work I do not work for the system but, rather by adopting children from the system.

The State Foster Care Adoption systems are designed to find Families for Children and NOT children for families.

Please Read the statement above twice....

The private adoption system is about finding babies for parents and not about finding families for babies. The perspectives between the Placement decision makers is completely different--which was the main reason we chose Foster Adoption over domestic-private adoption.

We were interested in providing a loving, supportive family for children to grow up feeling as a part of a family... We were not interested in having a baby found for us.

If the whole adoption system were made ONE program then things would change for both... I do not want the states to stop looking for good families to meet the specific needs of the child and start looking for children to place with specific families....

This would also make it less likely for potential birth mothers to have the ability to select the adoptive parents which has been an improvement for placing mothers and provided them with more opportunity and choices especially in the area of openness.

I think this idea would be fantastic for some of the families adopting internationally who need to post adoption supports that Foster Adoptive families currently recieve. Every year children adopted internationally are placed into the US Foster Care system due to the fact the adoptive parents have so few support services to help these children who often have the same issues our Foster Adoptive children have.

I think it would be fantastic to allow the same kinds of support, social worker input and services for families adopting internationally especially with FASD, RAD and cultural issues families face...

I think that the private adoption industry would not allow this and would use all their big bucks to prevent any "government" control to take over... I also think that for potential birth mothers this would be negative as they would be forced into the Child Protection Services department and deal with all the implications of that.... Although, if things were well thought out and managed properly this ***could*** offer them more protection...

Interesting question.... I may add more as answers are posted.

Answer 2

Consider this:

How many Insurance companies employ cancer survivors to review claims of cancer patients?

How many pregnant teens sit on councils to try and prevent teen pregnancy?

How many family law judges have actually practice family law?

Oh and my favorite.....How many regular people are actually politicians???

Unfortunately adoption is not federally regulated.....states are allowed to run amok and the law is left to interpretation.

And seriously....when the federal government is willingly paying for $80,000 for a study on the mating habits of fruit flies can they be trusted either?

I guess I have no answer without serious government reform in all areas......I do not trust politicians.

Answer 3

Based on how Australia has handled adoption, I do think that moving it all to government oversight would be better. In most cases I would cringe at the thought of the government having more input in our lives, but adoption in this country is way out of control - people are making money off of our son's and daughters.

I am not sure how I feel about agency sws being transfered to government positions, simply because it has probably been in their best interest to get infants for adoption. (The NCFA proudly states that they've trained over 17,000 adoption workers in "infant awareness adoption" - which translates into "how to get a baby".) This isn't the mindset of a person that I want to see working in adoption - even under federal guidelines.

Having said that, I still think government-only adoptions would be better than the current status quo.

In 1978 in New Zealand all government subsidies to unwed mother's homes were cut off. They were given the option of shutting down or changing their function to that of a home from young mothers and their infants where the moms could learn parenting skills. (From an interview with Joss Shawyer on the Adoption Show http://www.theadoptionshow.com/home2.php - highly recommended!) I'd like to see that happen with adoption agencies and unwed mother's homes here in the US.

In NZ there are no private adoptions, no agencies; adoption is all state run and women don't get to select the people who will parent her child. (Unfortunately that practice is more coercive to her - it makes it appear that she has some control; her choice may be based on a picture of a smiling couple and their written profile. Even if she has met them - even worse in my opinion - how well does she really know the potential adoptive parents? It's just window dressing.)

I hope I live to see the day when agency and private adoptions of any kind are abolished in this country.

Answer 4

I noticed on the recent evan b donaldson adoption institute study on adoptive parent preparation that the obstacles of preparing adoptive parents according to the study, came from the following reasons:

#Inadequate training of adoption professionals -- in areas related to adoption, foster care, mental health, child development, and family dynamics -- in their formal schooling, on the job, and through continuing education programs.

# Insufficient financial and staffing resources to develop and implement ongoing adoptive parent preparation and educational programs.

# Inadequate guidelines regarding the necessary scope and content for adoption preparation and education programs.

# High staff turnover, particularly in the public child welfare system.

# Biases among some professionals who view adoption unrealistically, and consequently, either ignore, downplay, or dismiss the differences and challenges that can be associated with adoptive family life, or gloss over issues in an attempt to expedite a child's placement.

# Under-representation of birthparents and adopted individuals in professional positions associated with child placement and parent preparation, which can result in a one-sided presentation of adoptive family life and adoption kinship dynamics.

# Viewing adoption as a business focused primarily on making placements, with too little attention to best practices that support those placements, or to alternative permanency plans.

# Inadequate information about a child's birth family and pre-placement history.

# Lack of availability of adequate post-adoption services in most communities.

# Inadequate training of mental health professionals in areas related to adoption and foster care.

# Lack of receptivity to the information provided or failure to use services on the part of prospective adoptive parents because of unique personal vulnerabilities, insecurities, unrealistic expectations, and/or lack of knowledge about existing resources or ways to access those resources.

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So if you notice alot of the obstacles come from lack of education/training, motivation, and finances to the social workers among other things.

I think at this point, putting everything into "their" hands wouldn't benefit the system much. I think there needs to be a massive overhaul, bulldozing and reform from the ground up of the system.

At the same time getting it out of the hands of dr's, lawyers, and agencies and putting it into the state is what I advocate for, its just getting there and making sure we get their "whole" that is the hard part.

Australia for example runs their adoptions through the state. They have no private agencies, no lawyers, no dr's allowed to do adoptions, its all govt. run and handled and they have a surrender rate of less than 500 adoptions a year compared to 100,000 + like the states.

Taking the middle man out of adoption is a great thing to do because it takes out the motivation for financial gain from transfering parental rights and children into new homes.

I like the concept behind it, however I think a lot more needs to go into it inorder for it to "work."