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Post-adoption service needs of families with special needs children: use, helpfulness and unmet needs
- Authors:
- REILLY Thom, PLAZ Laurie
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Service Research, 4(30), 2004, pp.51-68.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This study was conducted to explore post-adoptive service needs of families adopting special needs children. In addition, the research examined the relationship of post-adoption service utilization to positive adoption outcomes. Two hundred forty-nine (N = 249) special needs adoptive families representing 373 children responded to a mailed survey as part of this study. Financial, medical, and dental supports, and subsidies emerged as the most frequently cited service needs. Reports of unmet needs included: counseling services and in-home supports (respite care, daycare and babysitting services). The receipt of financial supports, other supports such as social work coordination and legal services and informal supports (support groups for parents and children) were significantly associated with higher satisfaction with parenting. Unmet service needs in the form of counseling, informal supports, other supports, out of home placement needs, financial supports, and in-home supports were associated with a lower perceived quality of relationship between the adoptive parent and child and a more negative impact on the family and marriage. No differences were found between former foster parents to the adoptive child and new parents to the child or on primary caregiver's characteristics such as race/ethnicity, age, marital status, and religious practice. Implications for practice and policy are discussed. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street Binghamton, NY 13904-1580)
Changing the future: the story of attachment with a child with special needs
- Author:
- ROBB Betty J.
- Journal article citation:
- Clinical Social Work Journal, 31(1), Spring 2003, pp.9-24.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
This article, initiated by personal experience, looks at parental fear of attachment to children with conditions which put them at risk, the experiencing of grief at the loss of the “fantasy baby,” and the acceptance by the parents which enables the attachment to proceed. Reference is made to attachment issues in the case of adoption, styles of attachment, and some notion of reconstruction in therapy with ‘special needs' survivors where attachment has been insecure or the process has been attenuated by length of risk.
Family functioning of adoptive children with special needs: implications of familial supports and child characteristics
- Authors:
- LEUNG Patrick, ERICH Stephen
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 24(11), November 2002, pp.799-816.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Adopted children with special needs status are much less likely to remain permanently placed with an adoptive family than children from conventional adoptions. Many intact families with special needs children are more likely to return to substitute care options such as foster care. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the adoptive child's behaviour, characteristics of the adopted child and parents, type of adoption, and familial support upon family functioning. Lower levels of family functioning are associated with higher levels of support from the relatives, school and professional helpers (teachers, social workers and therapists). Furthermore, the data also show that sibling adoption, older the age of the adopted child, and a higher number of legal contacts are associated with lower family functioning.