Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110587

Tammy Thomas, MSW, MPH, Dept of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 130 Parran Hall, 221 Parran Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, 412-624-8139, tltst26@pitt.edu

Recently, child welfare policy on the state and national level began endorsing permanent placement for children residing in custody of the child welfare system. Adoption services became the focus for state agencies as well as non-profit organizations. Much of the work of child advocates concentrated on seeking families interested in parenting children, and providing adoption preparation services to both the children and perspective parents. However, much less consideration has been directed at maintaining the stability of the placement after adoptions are finalized. From anecdotal information, it was hypothesized that families were in significant need of support and services even after the finalizations of the adoption. A non-profit community organization decided, based on years of experience in providing adoption services, to apply for a federal demonstration grant in order to determine the needs of post-adoptive families, thereby, then allowing them to develop services to address these families' specific needs.

This presentation will examine the findings from focus groups held in six counties with post-adoptive parents. The major findings stemming from this work clearly defined the needs of families, identified barriers to services and targeted the types of services and informal supports needed by families. While this information has been used for program planning and can provide insights to other service providers, it also has broader policy implications. At the policy level, these findings should serve as an introduction for discussion of the long-term impacts of this adoption process.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain an understanding of the needs of post adoptive families.
• Participants will begin to understand the barriers to families seeking or receiving services.
• Participants will be encouraged to think about how families’ experiences should be incorporated in policy decisions.

Keywords: Maternal and Child Health, Advocacy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation