Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts
Winter 2003 - Vol 27 (4)
Are we missing the match? Rethinking adopter assessment and child profiling
Jennifer Cousins
Key words: adoption, assessment, matching, child profiles
Despite roughly equal numbers of prospective adopters and children for whom adoption is planned, there is a fundamental mismatch between the characteristics of the children available and the 'kinds' of children whom adopters want to parent.
Applicants during the assessment process are invited to identify the age and characteristics of a future child. When so identified and recorded, adopters' 'requirements' rule out a wide spectrum of children from consideration. Barriers to matching are thus erected prematurely and inflexibly. Cousins argues that the problem is compounded when children who need new families are reduced to a brief snapshot of special features, a process that tends to highlight 'deficits' and fails to portray the whole child. An approach that avoids hypothetical 'matching' categories and is led by the needs of a real child might be more effective. A new structure of assessment and linking is suggested, and comments are invited so that the model can be developed further.
Jennifer Cousins is Consultant, BAAF's Opening Doors Disability Project
Health problems in children adopted from Romania: association with duration of deprivation and behavioural problems
Celia Beckett, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues, Thomas G O'Connor, Michael Rutter and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) Study Team*
Key words: adoption, health, Romania, deprivation, inattention
This paper examines the pattern of health problems as reported by parents in a group of children adopted from Romania and relates these findings to outcomes at age six. The study is based on a representative sample of 165 children, 144 of whom had experienced institutional deprivation, and a UK adoptee group of 52 non-deprived UK adoptees.
At the time of UK entry, over half of the children adopted from Romania had marked health problems. The majority had suffered severe malnutrition and there was a high incidence of respiratory, skin and gastro-intestinal infections; 13 per cent had antibodies to hepatitis B. At age six, 17 per cent of the children had conductive hearing loss, 12 per cent had continuing strabismus and 35 per cent skin problems; half of those infected with hepatitis B were still surface antigen positive. Inattention/overactivity at age six was found to be more likely in children who had been exposed to prenatal and postnatal health risks. The children who had quasi-autistic features were also more likely to have strabismus.
There were no associations found between health risks and either cognitive outcomes or attachment problems. The risk of inattention/overactivity for children who have suffered marked deprivation was increased for those who had additional health risks.
Celia Beckett is a PhD student at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Kings College London
Jenny Castle and Christine Groothues are research workers at the same centre
Tom O'Connor is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Rochester, New York State
Michael Rutter is a Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Kings College London
*Diana Bredenkamp, Carla Croft, Judy Dunn and Jana Kreppner
Of kin and culture: US Children and international kinship care placements
Dana Naughton and Kerry L Fay
Key words: foster care, kinship care, international social work
Through voluntary or forced migration, families enter the United States as refugees, asylum seekers, documented or undocumented immigrants, students or temporary or skilled workers. They bring children or give birth to children who become citizens by virtue of having been born in the new homeland. Inevitably, some of these families will interact with public child welfare systems. Children are placed in foster care when parents die, are incarcerated, institutionalised, or abandon or neglect their children.
When evaluating placement decisions for these children, child welfare workers usually overlook the resources of family members outside of the country. Grandparents and other close kin often have the ability and motivation to provide care for vulnerable relative children. Through case description and summary of domestic laws and international conventions, the authors identify challenges to cross-border placements and make recommendations for further research and consideration.
Dana Naughton is a therapist at the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, Washington, DC, and former Assistant Director of International Social Service, USA Branch
Kerry L Fay is a social worker and former intern at International Social Service, USA Branch
How do 'children who foster' perceive fostering?
Wendy Spears and Melanie Cross
Key words: fostering, children who foster, consultation, support and training, development of services, influencing placement outcomes
There has been an increasing awareness of the important role that the children of foster parents play in fostering.
Within the Integrated Services Programme various initiatives have been set up to support these young people and to value their contribution. As part of this, the authors have sought the views of 'children who foster' about fostering. The results of 20 interviews and three group sessions with children who foster are presented.
Although they acknowledged the difficulties, these young people appeared to value and to have benefited from the experience of fostering in many cases. They were asked specifically to give advice to others in the same position and this also provides valuable insights. The results of this study have implications for the way the children of foster families, and indeed their parents, are trained and supported. The role of children who foster is not always clear and it is important that this is carefully negotiated with them and with their families. These young people can be instrumental in the success or failure of a placement.
Wendy Spears is a fostering team social worker with the Integrated Services Programme (ISP), an independent childcare organisation which provides multidisciplinary services for children in the care of the local authority
Melanie Cross is a speech and language therapist with the same organisation
Towards new models of professional foster care*
Frank Ainsworth and Anthony Maluccio
Key words: foster care, professionalisation of services, care models
Foster care for children and young people is in crisis in Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, as elsewhere. For this reason, the proposal by Barbara Hutchinson and her associates (see Adoption & Fostering 27:3, 2003) is timely and noteworthy. In line with their argument regarding professionalisation of foster care services, Ainsworth and Maluccio propose that new models of foster care also need to be considered. Two models are suggested for further review: (1) Family for Family, which involves the recruitment of a foster family for a birth family; and (2) Circle of Friends, which is designed for children and young people whose behaviours exhaust traditional foster carers. If developed further, these models, like those of Walker et al (2002) and Chamberlain (2003), would add to the diversity of foster care services and make for a greater range of possible placements.
Frank Ainsworth is Research Scholar and Lecturer (Adjunct), Edith Cowan University, School of International Cultural and Community Studies, Perth, Australia
Anthony Maluccio is Professor of Social Work, Boston College, Massachusetts, USA
* The authors' original article has been developed in response to a paper by Hutchinson et al (2003), published in the last edition of Adoption & Fostering.
Developing new mental health services for looked after children: a focus group
study
Jane Callaghan, Bridget Young, Maxine Richards and Panos Vostanis
Key words: looked after children, child mental health services, focus groups
Looked after children have extensive mental health needs that are not often met by current mental health service provision. The authors describe the use of focus groups with various stakeholders - social services staff, foster carers and residential social workers - to inform the development of a specialist mental health team for looked after children.
Thirteen focus groups were conducted, comprising 58 participants in total, and all sessions were audiotaped and transcribed. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method and this revealed several emergent themes: difficulties accessing mental health services, the importance of developing a working partnership between child and adolescent mental health services, social services and foster carers, the need for consultation, and the importance of developing a service that is appropriate to the specific needs of looked after children. The newly developed model of mental health provision for looked after children is described, and the ways in which its form was influenced by the issues identified in focus groups are highlighted.
Jane Callaghan is Lecturer in Psychology, University of Northampton
Bridget Young is Lecturer in Psychology, University of Hull
Maxine Richards is Research Associate, University of Leicester
Panos Vostanis is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Legal notes: England and Wales
Deborah Cullen
Legal notes: Scotland
Alexandra Plumtree
Legal notes: Northern Ireland
Kerry O‘Halloran
Legal notes: USA
James Marsh and Daniel Pollack
Medical notes: The role of Primary Care Trusts in promoting the health needs of looked after children
Dr. Karen Lehner
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