Week 11 adoption

Respond to your colleague Provide at least two additional treatment strategies that could be used with this client and at least one additional cultural influence that you think should be considered. Explain your responses.

Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parent or parents. There are several millions of orphans worldwide and also several millions of adults with infertility issues but wish to raise children. Adoption provides the avenue to address the issue. Most children without a parent are raised in orphanage centers where willing parents can quickly adopt them. According to Sadock, Sadock, and Ruiz (2014), statistics reveal that approximately 3.5 % of children are without parents in the United States. Among these populations, about 1.5% are adopted by their relatives and 2% by non-relatives. The remainder of this population goes to foster care systems.

Psychological Issues

Adoption doesn’t end with a child placed in the adoptive family. The process of adoption is a lifelong one for everyone involved, and the emotional explorations of an individual’s adoption journey are ongoing. Everyone’s experience with adoption is unique, so no two adoptees will experience the same impact of adoption.

There are so many psychological issues associated with adoption. Possible psychological effects of adoption on the child may include struggles with low self-esteem, identity issues, or feeling unsure of where they ‘fit in’ difficulty forming emotional attachments and a sense of grief or loss related to their birth family. For instance, individuals adopted by transracial, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) parents, different cultures and beliefs, being from another country, being in an open adoption, and being placed for adoption from abusive parents whose rights were terminated (ChildWelfare.gov, 2013). The life of adoptees from a different background may be psychologically impacted while trying to adjust to the new norm.

Assessment Measures

There are so many risks associated with adoption, which include the adoptee having both behavioral and emotional issues. To determine the level of the risks, hence the need for the assessment measures. Several assessment methods exist selected based on their effectiveness. One of assessment technique that has been reported to be useful is the use of the Narrative Story Stem Technique (NSST) (Tang, Ebleys, & Vliegen, 2018). The use of NSST allows for the detailed exploration of the internal realities of children, such as experiences, perceptions, and representations. When administering this technique, the adoptee is requested to complete a story stem by the interviewer. This assignment allows the interviewer to determine the perception of the adoptee. The use of these techniques to assess and track developmental change in adopted children’s attachment representations (Tang, Ebley, & Vliegen, 2018).The method also provides for the full examination of the child’s representation of family life, which plays a significant role in early intervention of the child’s early adversity.

Influence of Culture on Treatment

Culture plays a significant role in the definition of wellness for different individuals. The adoption parent needs to be aware of the cultural background of the adoptee in other to meet the needs. Knowing the culture is essential to maintain an enabling environment that must take into consideration the differences in perceptions of the adopted parents and adopted children (Brodzinsky, 2013). For example, adopted persons often lack birth family genetic and medical history. This information can be vitally important to the diagnosis and treatment of genetically based medical conditions (Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 2010). Besides, being asked to supply medical history information at a doctor’s appointment may make adopted persons acutely aware of how they differ from those who were not adopted. Finding out later in life that they were adopted as infants put adopted persons at risk of misdiagnoses or other medical issues due to their long-held assumption of a family medical history that they later find is incorrect. Training in cultural competence can help mental health professionals to effectively meet the developmental, familial, and psychological health needs of adopted children.

Reference

Brodzinsky, D. (2013). Enhancing adoption competence among mental health professionals. Retrieved from https://www.adoptioninstitute.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/03/2013_08_ANeedToKnow.pdf

ChildWelfare.gov. (2013). Impact of adoption on adopted persons. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/f_adimpact.pdf

Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. (2009). Beyond culture camp: Promoting health identity formation in adoption. Retrieved from http://www. adoptioninstitute.org/research/2009_11_ culture_camp.php

Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Tang, E., Bleys, D., & Vliegen, N. (2018). Making sense of adopted children’s internal reality using narrative story stem techniques: A Mixed-Methods Synthesis. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1189. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01189