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We have recently been piloting an independent specialist
consultative Adoption Support Clinic for adopters. This has been organised in
conjunction with Joy Hasler from CATCH-point who has specialist skills in
Creative Attachment Therapies for adopted children.
Evaluation of the pilot project shows that the clinic is much valued by
adopters. It enables them to receive very specialised, speedy, responsive
advice on dealing with exceptionally difficult behaviours, which sometimes
threaten the children’s schooling or in some cases their home. They can also
receive follow up through SWAN’s specialist workers, who are also in a
position to develop specialist work with a child that supports the placement.
Many adopters have found themselves dealing with children who have behaviour
problems, which stem from early pre-adoption abuse and neglect. When they
seek help they find that there are insufficient professionals who have the
specialist knowledge of adoption and of early attachment disorders. SWAN is
in a position to rectify this through the provision of this clinic and
subsequent follow up by specialist SWAN workers. We also aim to develop
training for professionals in these specialist areas.
We would like to extend this service to provide specialist clinics with Joy
and other noted professionals on a monthly basis throughout the southwest
region
Some would hope that this kind of support should be available through
statutory services but sadly it is not. Adopters have found that the CAMHS
service frequently cannot provide the service that they require.
The statutory system is unresponsive to meeting the crisis
needs of adopters, who are often struggling to help their new children deal
with the aftermath of horrendous abuse.
Independent, specialist therapeutic advice can help give adopters more
understanding of the issues and support them in their task as therapeutic
parents. This in turn provides the best therapy for the children.
Children who are adopted after a lengthy experience of being in care, are
amongst the most damaged children in our society. They come into care as a
result of abuse, neglect or parental mental health difficulties or drug
misuse. Attachment disorders are very common amongst this group of children,
and there is much research detailing the difficulties experienced by these
children and their carers, and ways of helping adopters.
If these disorders go untreated, adoptive placements can
break down and the children can then go on to become a drain on community
resources as they struggle to make relationships and find their place in the
world. Unfortunately the specialist knowledge is rarely available and SWAN
has made it possible for these skills to be more widely accessed.
DEVELOPMENT
In the future we would like to extend this consultative service so that we
could offer a specialist clinic for children with ADHD.
We would also like to be able provide other specialist clinics involving
family therapists and other specialist professionals.
Case Study
Maggie and her adopted parents Jane and Kevin
Maggie is aged nine and has a younger sister Annie who is
seven. Maggie was placed for adoption when she was four with her younger
sister, after a very unsettled childhood. She never bonded with her natural
mother who suffered from drug addiction and mental health difficulties.
Maggie was particularly traumatised by the domestic violence that existed in
the family home during the first eighteen months of her life.
She was received into care several times in the first two
years of her life and this culminated in the Local Authority taking care
proceedings when she was two and a half. She was finally placed for adoption
when she was four and a half, and her sister was two and a half. Annie has
settled well with her adopters but Maggie has become progressively more
difficult, needing to be in control of everything and creating difficulties
in the home and at school. She draws her mother into arguments and refuses to
do as she is told, but always does what her father asks, causing her parents
to split in their management of her behaviour. This is the classic behaviour
of a child with early attachment problems. She has few friends and some of
her difficulties spill into school creating problems with her peers.
Few professional have been trained in the management of
attachment disorders, and adopters need specialist help to develop strategies
for managing the behaviours, and preventing breakdown of placements. Research
is showing that changes happen in the brain when attachment does not happen
properly in the early years and this then shows up later in childhood,
requiring different parenting strategies from adopters.
The Adoption Support Project in association with
CATCHpoint is providing training for adopters and professionals in attachment
disorders. Through the adoption support clinic we are able to provide a
prompt consultation response, which can assist adopters in developing
strategies in managing difficult behaviours that occur in children with
attachment disorders.
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