Introduction to Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

1. Introduction to Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

3. Introductions 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?

4. Handout #2.1 Certificate Program in Adoption Competency for Mental Health Professionals

5. The Certificate Course: Today’s Areas of Focus • 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?

6. Selected Future Topics

8. Learning Objectives 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

9. Learning Objectives for this Session 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

10. Your Session on Adoption History, Law and Process • 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?

11. Your Session on Adoption History, Law and Process • 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

12. Handout #2.2 The Definition of an Adoption Competent Mental Health Professional

13. Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals • 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?

14. Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals • 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?

15. Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals • 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?

16. Definition of Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals • 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?

17. Providing Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

18. Handout #2.3 Post Adoption Services

19. Post Adoption Services Quiz • 1. True or False: Most adoptive families do not need post adoption services or supports.

20. Post Adoption Services Quiz • 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

21. Post Adoption Services Quiz • 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

22. Post Adoption Services Quiz • 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

23. Post Adoption Services Quiz • 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

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

25. The Therapeutic/Philosophical Framework for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services

26. Handout #2.4 Principles of the Theoretical/Philosophical Framework for Providing Adoption Competent Mental Health Service

27. Partner Work 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

28. Handout #2.5 Questions for Prospective Therapists

29. Handout #2.6 Positive Adoption Language

30. Handout # 2.7 Natasha’s Case: Part 1

31. The Therapeutic Approach: For Discussion 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?

32. The Therapeutic Approach: Small Group Work Handout #2.8 Natasha’s Case: Part 2

33. Small Group Work Return to your small groups. • How does Rachel work with Natasha? • How does her work compare with your ideas? Report Out

34. Report Out • 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?

35. Key Characteristics of the Therapeutic Approach 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?

36. Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach 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?

37. Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach 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?

38. Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach 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?

39. Key Characteristics of The Therapeutic Approach 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?

40. Lunch Time!

41. Engaging Adoptive Families Handout #2.9 Case Scenarios: Engaging Adoptive Parents

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

43. Sudra and Amare Tom, Sandra and Deven Derrick , Steve, and Shoshana

44. Handout #2.10 Life in An Orphanage

45. Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption 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.

46. Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption 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.

47. Race and Culture in Adoption: Transracial and Transcultural Adoption 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.

48. Definitions of Transracial and Transcultural Adoption

49. Definitions of Transracial and Transcultural Adoption • 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.

50. Small Group Work What are the ways that race and ethnicity may affect adoptive families? White families who adopt a child of color