Permanency Tip of the Week: Finding Permanency for the Permanent Connections
In our efforts to secure Permanency for our Youth in foster care, we need to remember that the newly found / rediscovered sources of Permanency also need their own Permanency. The needs and challenges for our Youth go well beyond securing them Permanency. Once the Youth is connected with the new Permanency, the real work of helping the child adjust to the experience of unconditional care and acceptance begins. This adjustment can be very challenging and the new sources of Permanency will undoubtedly need a good deal of Permanency themselves to help meet the needs of the Youth. Let’s be sure that we take our Permanency efforts to the 2nd level to enhance the chances that the new Permanency will be Permanent.
Permanency Story of the Week: Never Too Old For A Family
By Melinda Haggerty – Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Senior Vice President, General Counsel – Personal and professional experiences have taught us that you never outgrow the need for a family. At the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, we know that sentiment is especially true. Adult adoption, where a person is legally adopted after his or her eighteenth birthday, provides young adults aging out of the child welfare system the option to find their forever family long after emancipating from foster care.
Before my professional path brought me to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, my own adoption story began when I was placed into foster care as a teenager. After entering foster care at thirteen years old, the statistics were stacked against me. It was unlikely that I would ever be given a safe, permanent, loving family. However, during the five years that I spent in foster care, I thrived in a new stable environment where I was supported and encouraged to achieve my potential.
As I approached my eighteenth birthday, I became keenly aware of the threat of aging out of foster care without the safety net of a permanent home. My foster mother legally adopted me right after I emancipated, narrowly avoiding the fate of the more than 23,000 youth per year who leave the child welfare system without a family…
Current Permanency related articles:
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Child Abuse Prevention Month is a time to acknowledge the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect, and to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families. During the month of April and throughout the year, communities are encouraged to share child abuse and neglect prevention awareness strategies and activities and promote prevention across the country. In recognition of the 40th anniversary of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, we have designed a historical timeline of significant moments in child abuse prevention in the United States
Webinar – Reshaping Adoption and Child Welfare; Progressing from ‘Child Placement’ to ‘Family Success’
Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 1:00 – 2:00 PM EDT. Presenter: Adam Pertman – President, National Center on Adoption and Permanency (NCAP). The mantra in our field has long been that every child deserves a safe, permanent, loving family – and policy and practice has been shaped over the decades primarily to accomplish that objective. The population of children being served today (as well as that of parents) has changed radically however; so many of those families are indeed safe, permanent, and loving – but life is a struggle every day. In this webinar, Adam Pertman provides an overview of the historic changes that have taken place and outlines what needs to happen to genuinely help children and families into the future. The bottom line is moving law, policy, and practice beyond the goal of ‘child placement’ to a new paradigm that focuses on enabling families to succeed.
Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy Puts the Body – and Love – Back In Mental Healthcare
Laura K Kerr, Ph.D – For the past 50 years, psychotherapy has taken a back seat to biomedical psychiatry, largely due to reliance on medications for the treatment of mental disorders. Yet clinical evidence increasingly points to chronic, unresolved traumatic stress as the source of many — if not most — mental disorders…Fortunately, the psychotherapeutic treatment of psychological trauma has advanced significantly the past several decades. In part, this is due to scientific discoveries of how the body and relationships naturally defend against traumatic stress.
Revealing sibling to adopted child complex decision
I have a young friend who is the adoptive mother of an 11-year-old, a child who came to her as an infant when the birth mother died. There was an older sibling, born of a different father, who was adopted by someone else and is being raised on the East Coast. My friend’s child does not know of this sibling. And my friend believes that this is the right time for her child to be told. We have so many decisions to make as we raise our children – choices made with the best interest of our children in mind, choices that turn out well and sometimes not. Adoptive parents have some additional hurdles, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for them all.
Webinar — Birth Parent Trauma and What Child Welfare Workers Need to Know
May 14, 2015 3-4:30 p.m. (EST) – CWLA, in partnership with the NCTSN, is presenting the webinar series “Advancements in the Field: What’s Working?” which addresses current advances in the field of trauma-informed child welfare practice. It will highlight the latest evidence-informed and evidence-based trauma practices in key areas relevant to the work of child welfare.
8 tips for helping your traumatized child rebuild trust
When a child experiences or witnesses any form of emotional or physical abuse, their trust can become shattered. Trauma survivors may have trouble trusting their close family relationships or friendships. The symptoms of trauma can cause problems with trust, closeness, communication and problem solving. These problems may affect the way the survivor acts with others.