29.5 Placement Support
The primary purpose of support services is to assist the child and new family to become integrated as a family unit. Reciprocal and open communication between the Children’s Service Worker, family and child is essential to identifying the services needed for integration to occur. Children placed in the temporary custody of the adoptive parents remain in the CD’s legal custody. Support services, visitation and timely PPRT meetings should continue until the finalization of the adoption and the court has released the child and CD from jurisdiction. Services should be consistent with the needs of the family and may be provided by the worker and/or through referrals to community resources. The following represents the minimum expectations for worker contact with the adoptive family:
- Visit face-to-face in the home with the family and child once a week for the first month of placement.
- Visit face-to-face in the home, at a minimum, once a month thereafter, until the adoption decree is issued.
- Contact by telephone as needed.
- Face-to-face in home closure visit with the child and adoptive parent(s) after the adoption has been finalized.
Issues which the Children’s Service worker should discuss with the family and child during contacts should include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
- That emotional attachment between parent and child is not simultaneous with the physical move.
- The progressive periods of adjustment for children in placement, i.e., separation and grief, honeymoon, testing, normal child behavior and/or attachment.
- Adoptive parents normally experience ambivalent feelings, emotional letdowns, and periods of uncertainty. This can be a normal reaction following both crisis and success.
- The child may respond to each parent in different ways.
- The adjustment of the child and parents may occur at different rates.
- The child may compare his present family unfavorably with his former family.
- The child’s feeling of being safe in the placement.
- Child's needs related to his/her cultural/racial background, if different than the adoptive parents.
The Children’s Service Worker should continually assess and offer guidance to the family in the development of the parent-child relationship and problems unique to the adoption. The following topics shall be discussed with the family during the worker's contact with the adoptive parents:
- Effect of the child's placement on the marital and family relationship.
- Child's adjustment to new school and community.
- Child's current behavior and continuation of past behavior and how family is coping with the behavior.
- Effect of child's continued contact with foster parents and/or significant others.
- Availability of resources to assist family in learning about and coping with child's special needs, i.e., support groups, organizations, community agencies, etc.