Excellent article by Marion Crook, PhD, a nurse, educator, adoptive mother & author:
I attended the North American Council on Adoptable Children Conference in Los Angles in July 2015 … There is amazing energy when more than 900 dedicated people meet and exchange ideas. The conference was full of inspiring sessions.
Adam Pertman, president and founder of the National Center for Adoption and Permanency presented a session on “Reshaping Adoption for the 21st Century: Progressing from Child Placement to Family Success.” I was so intrigued with his ideas that I whipped back to my hotel room and ordered a Kindle copy of his book Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming Our Families—and America. Pertman is a captivating writer. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his writing on adoption and we are privileged to have him as “one of us.”
… The new vision for prioritizing success and permanence would include openness, which has, for the most part, been accepted. It would include working harder to keep the family of origin intact. It would fund research so we don’t use a generation of adoptees as experiments, and we could formulate our services and supports around what research defines as best practices. We need to support programs such as the Wraparound program, which provides a respite for youth and their families with the services and support of professionals. The change in focus of this new vision of adoption would make such programs a logical part of family success. Services for children and families must be an integral part of the adoption process.