Introduction to Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

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Introduction to Adoption Competent Mental

Health Services

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What are you most interested in learning from this certificate course?

What is something about yourself that no one would know just by looking at you?

Introductions

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Handout #2.1

Certificate Program in Adoption Competency for Mental Health Professionals

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What does it mean to be an “adoption competent” mental health professional?

What is the theoretical and philosophical framework that should guide our work as adoption competent mental health professionals?

How can we apply this framework in building therapeutic relationships with adopted persons, adoptive families, kinship families and birth families?

What is the role of race/ethnicity, class, gender/sexual orientation and family culture in adoption?

Are there biases and beliefs regarding adoption that may impact our clinical practice?

The Certificate Course: Today’s Areas of Focus

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Clinical Issues • Trauma• Attachment• Loss and separation• Grief • Identity formation • Racial, cultural, and ethnic identity

Adoption Issues• Developmental stages of an adopted child• Different types of adoptive families• Adoptive family development and integration• Open adoption

Selected Future Topics

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Clinical Skills • Preparing children and families for adoption• Working with families on issues of racial and ethnic identity• Consulting with parents on children’s challenging behaviors• Helping families explore ongoing connections post adoption• Working with birth families

Working at the community and cross systems levels• Community resources• Other service systems

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Identify 5 characteristics of adoption competent mental health professionals

Identify 5 principles that comprise the theoretical and philosophical framework

Identify effective and ineffective therapeutic strategies

List 2 clinical skills in developing a therapeutic relationship

Learning Objectives

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List at least two clinical skills in engaging adoptive parents as the experts on their child.

Give 3 examples of how race/ethnicity might impact adopted person

Give 3 examples of how sexual orientation might impact adoptive parents

Identify 2 beliefs of clinicians about adoption that might impact their clinical work

Learning Objectives for this Session

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Was any of the information about the adoption process new to you? Have you worked with families on aspect of the adoption process?

What about the court process and its potential impact on families, children and youth? Any thoughts about what you learned about the adoption court process?

Your Session on Adoption History, Law and Process

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Were there any new insights into the history of adoption? Did any aspect of the history of adoption strike you as particularly relevant to today’s adoption practice?

What are your thoughts about the many adoption laws that you read about?◦ Hague Convention/Intercountry Adoption Act◦ Federal child welfare laws◦ State laws on private adoptions

Your Session on Adoption History, Law and Process

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Handout #2.2

The Definition of an Adoption Competent Mental Health Professional

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Do you agree with the type of approach that adoption competent mental health professionals/clinicians are expected to use and the knowledge and skills they should have?

The definition specifies certain knowledge areas. Do these areas seem relevant to adoption competency?

Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals

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The definition specifically states that adoption competent mental health professionals are “culturally competent with respect to the racial and cultural heritage of children and families.” Why do you think that this area was expressly emphasized in the definition?

Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals

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The definition states that adoption competent mental health professionals are skilled in using a range of therapies with birth, kinship and adoptive families to meet certain goals? What range of therapies might you expect adoption competent mental health professionals to be able to use?

Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals

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Finally, the definition states that an adoption competent mental health professional is skilled in advocating with other service systems on behalf of birth and adoptive families. Is this something that you expected to see in the definition or does it surprise you?

Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals

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Providing Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

Post-placement

Post-adoption

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Handout #2.3Post Adoption Services

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1. True or False: Most adoptive families do not need post adoption services or supports.

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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2. Families who seek post adoption services most often need help with:

A. Their children’s grief and loss B. Their own grief and loss C. Attachment issues D. All of the above

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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3. Issues regarding an adopted child’s identity formation may be particularly complex when children have been adopted:

A. As an infant B. Transracially C. From foster care D. Without their siblings

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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4. Which of the following would NOT likely trigger the need for post adoption services and support?A. The child becoming an adolescent

B. Mother’s Day C. The adoptive family taking a vacation

together D. The child starting kindergarten or first

grade

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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5. Which of the following would NOT likely be offered by adoptive family support groups?

A. Information and referral B. Financial support C. Buddy families D. Workshops

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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6. True or False: Families who adopt children from foster care can often use adoption subsidies and Medicaid to obtain post adoption services.

Post Adoption Services Quiz

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The Therapeutic/Philosophical Framework for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

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Handout #2.4

Principles of the Theoretical/Philosophical Framework for Providing Adoption Competent Mental Health Service

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Select the one principle that was most compelling based on your own personal and/or professional experience with adoption. Share your selected principle with your partner then reverse roles.

Report Out

Partner Work

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Handout #2.5 Questions for Prospective Therapists

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Handout #2.6 Positive Adoption Language

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Handout # 2.7

Natasha’s Case: Part 1

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What might be your therapeutic approach with

Natasha?

What issues might you expect to work on with Natasha?

How would you involve (or not involve) Natasha’s adoptive mother?

The Therapeutic Approach: For Discussion

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The Therapeutic Approach: Small Group Work

Handout #2.8

Natasha’s Case: Part 2

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Return to your small groups. How does Rachel work with Natasha?

How does her work compare with your ideas?

Report Out

Small Group Work

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Which aspects of the therapeutic relationship are most meaningful to Natasha?

How has Natasha experienced adoption? What impact have Natasha’s birth mother

and other important caregivers had on her? What was Rachel’s work with Natasha’s

adoptive mother?

Report Out

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The therapist recognizes that each individual experiences adoption in a unique way.

◦ How might adopted persons experience adoption?◦ What are some ways that an adopted person

might experience adoption that are different than the way that Natasha experiences adoption?

Key Characteristics of the Therapeutic Approach

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The therapist recognizes that adoption is a circumstance of emotional importance that affects the adopted person, adoptive parents, birth parents, and extended family members.

◦ What are the important issues at an emotional level for each person touched by adoption?

Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach

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The therapist embraces a genuine collaboration with adoptive families as the real experts on their children.

◦ We didn’t see this happening in Rachel’s work with Natasha. Why do you think that it did not happen?

◦ How might a therapist genuinely collaborate with adoptive families as the real experts on their children?

Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach

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The therapist does not blame adoptive parents for their child’s emotional and behavioral challenges.

Many adoptive parents report that when they see therapists who have little background in working with adoptive families, the therapists often blame them for the child’s challenges. Why is this principle important in our therapeutic work with adoptive families?

Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach

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The therapist recognizes the presence and impact of the birth family on the adoptive family.

◦ How might the birth family be “present” in an adoptive family?

Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach

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Lunch Time!

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Engaging Adoptive Families

Handout #2.9 Case Scenarios: Engaging Adoptive Parents

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How might you incorporate these key characteristics of the therapeutic approach in working with and engaging thee adoptive parents?

Small Group Work

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Sudra and Amare

Tom, Sandra and Deven

Derrick , Steve, and Shoshana

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Handout #2.10

Life in An Orphanage

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Which of the following is a transracial or transcultural adoption?

Mom is Latina. She adopts a Chinese child.

Mom is White. She adopts a Russian child.

Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

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Dad is African American; Mom is White. They adopt an African American child.

Dad is African American; Mom is African American. They adopt an Hispanic/Latino child.

Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

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Dad is African American. He adopts a White child.

Mom #1 is White; Mom #2 is Latina. They adopt a White child.

Mom is of Chinese heritage; Dad is of Korean heritage. They adopt a Cambodian child.

Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

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Definitions of Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

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An adoption in which a family of one race adopts a child of another race

The term transracial adoption means the joining of racially different parents and children together in adoptive families

An adoptive parent(s) adopting and raising a child of a different race and ethnicity than their or their partner’s race or ethnicity

Transracial or transcultural adoption means placing a child who is one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In the US, these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color or children from another country with Caucasian adoptive parents.

Definitions of Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

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What are the ways that race and ethnicity may affect adoptive families?

White families who adopt a child of color

Small Group Work

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What are the ways that race and ethnicity may affect adoptive families?

For families of color who adopt a white child

Large Group Discussion

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Sexual orientation Birth and adoptive family culture

Culture and Adoption

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List at least 2 ways that sexual orientation may be an issue for gay and lesbian adoptive parents and at least 2 ways that sexual orientation be an issue for gay/lesbian youth who are being/have been adopted.

Small Group Discussion

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How might gender/sexual orientation be an issue for adoptive families?

For gay or lesbian adoptive parents

Culture in Adoption

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How might gender/sexual orientation be an issue for adoptive families?

For adopted young people who are gay or lesbian

Culture in Adoption

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The Interface of Race and Sexual Orientation

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The unique culture of each family How the culture of the adoptive family and

the birth family may be different  

Family Culture

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“Family culture is the unique way that a family forms itself in terms of rules, roles, habits, activities, beliefs, and other areas. The racial or ethnic culture in which a family lives may strongly influence family culture. Other families are no longer tied to cultural norms of their ethnic or racial group. Every family is different; every family has its own culture.”

Family Culture

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◦ What the parents like most about their children: The family’s goals for itself◦ Parents’ goals for their children◦ What the family sees as their biggest

accomplishment◦ What makes the family happy ◦ Their favorite memories

How might we think about the following as part of an adoptive family’s culture?

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◦ What parents view as their best qualities as parents

◦ The family’s “special rules”◦ Who their friends are, who they call when they

need help or want to talk, and who they consider to be supportive

◦ Traditions or cultural events in which the family participates

◦ Special values or beliefs that they learned from their parents or others

How might we think about the following as part of an adoptive family’s culture?

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Are there other aspects of the adoptive family’s culture that we should add to this list?

Family Culture

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Adoptive Family and Birth Family Culture: How are They Alike and How are They Different?

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Race, Ethnicity and Culture

Handout #2.11Race, Ethnicity and Culture in Adoption

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Handout #2.12 Therapists’ Values and Beliefs about Adoption  

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Our own experiences with adoption impact our values and beliefs about adoption. Discuss the questions on Handout #2.12.

Small Group Work

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How might a personal experience with adoption as a birth mother affect a therapist’s view of adoption?

How might a therapist think about adoption if he were adopted by an aunt and lived happily and healthily within an extended family that included his birth mother and father?

How might a therapist think about adoption if her clients are principally infertile couples who are attempting to adopt and who have experienced situations in which birth mothers changed their minds about agreeing to the adoption?

How might a therapist view adoption if she recently has had two cases in which, despite her intensive work, the parents made the decision to end the adoption?

Report Out

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Can I identify 5 characteristics of an adoption competent mental health professional?

Can I identify 5 principles that comprise the theoretical and philosophical framework for this work?

Can I identify effective and ineffective therapeutic strategies in a case study?

Can I list 2 clinical skills in developing a therapeutic relationship?

Summary

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Can I list 2 clinical skills in engaging adoptive parents as experts on their child?

Can I give 3 examples of how race/ethnicity might impact adopted person?

Can I give 3 examples of how gender/sexual orientation might impact adoptive parents?

Can I identify 2 beliefs of clinicians about adoption that might impact their clinical work?

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Your Final Projectwww.adoptionsupport.org

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Next Steps: A Brief Online Survey

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Next Session: Clinical and Ethical Issues in Planning, Preparing for and Supporting Adoption

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Thank you!