Three Big Reasons Adoption Competency Matters
Adoption Competency Helps Kids and Families Thrive!
Many children who experience foster care and adoption have prior experienced trauma in their lives. The combination of these complex experiences can lead to behavioral and mental health difficulties. The impact of these experiences compromise well-being in the family system. Infusing adoption competency in the provision of casework and clinical practice is essential to keep kids and families strong. Adoption competent supports help children with these unique experiences and helps to create an environment where they can thrive.
Adoption Competent Practice Supports Permanency
When families lack supports that understand the unique needs of adoptive and foster families, the stability of the home can be compromised. This has a grave impact on children. Children who age out of foster care without a permanent family environment are at risk for a host of difficulties, including homelessness, substance abuse and mental health challenges.
When children have services that help them process their past traumatic experiences, including their grief and loss, they are better able to develop healthy and appropriate coping skills. Similarly, when parents are provided with tools and strategies that make sense based on their adoption experiences, they are better able to provide support and stability for their children.
Families Persevere to Get the Right Help
Research demonstrates that adoptive parents often have to go through multiple providers before finding a therapist who truly understands the issues and experiences relevant to adoption. Untrained therapists who lack adoption competency will not be able to assess the situation accurately which will impact treatment strategies leading to ineffective interventions. For a variety of reasons, clinicians and caseworkers often lack training specific to the adoption experience and this limits their ability to practice effectively with this vulnerable population. Adoption competent practices save family the stress and despair of implementing tools and responses in their homes that don’t best serve the family’s needs.
Share the Opportunity: Over 19,000 Professionals Have Enrolled in NTI
NTI provides the training Child Welfare and Mental Health professionals need to engage in adoption competent practice and best support families. Reach out to us today to learn more about implementing NTI in your organization. The training is free of charge and web-based; the opportunity is timed well for making use of during the pandemic and beyond!
NTI (www.adoptionsupport.org/nti ) is a five-year, $9 million dollar initiative led by The Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) and funded through the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau, Grant #90CO1121. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the funder, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
