August 2012, Adoption Advocate: This paper briefly summarizes four distinct sets of research on the impact of institutionalization on children. Three are seminal studies specific to the CEE/CIS1 region, covering a wide range of issues in child development. The fourth is a set of meta-analyses based on thousands of adopted children worldwide. Consistent with these studies are new and important findings on the brain development of children. The findings of these and other similar research studies are many, and can be pursued by further studying the resources highlighted in the appendix to this paper. One inescapable conclusion is clear from the research highlighted here: for the sake of their development, it is of the utmost importance for young children to be in nurturing family-based environments early in their young lives.
Link to pdf Report
Category Archives: CA&N Resources
Special Needs Do Not Disappear with Adoption: The Need for Post-Adoption Services
July 26-28, NACAC Conference: About 90% of the children in foster care have “special needs,” representing challenges in placing them for adoption. Specialized support and preservation services save families and benefit society. The types of post adoption services required to help many of these families clearly go beyond weekly counseling sessions; they involve:
• family therapeutic interventions with home-based service availability
• 24-hour phone support in emergencies
• advocacy for other needed services (educational, diagnostic, etc.)
• child and parent support groups
• case coordination with other professionals
• respite care
Workers providing these services need specialized training in a range of competencies and interventions. Evaluations of such programs that exist in two states document their effectiveness (Smith & Howard, 1999; Atkinson & Gonet, 2007). Link to Conference Handouts
Social Media in Child Welfare: Uses, Pitfalls, and Opportunities
July 26-28, NACAC Conference: AdoptUSKids’ mission is two-fold: to raise public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for children in the public child welfare system; and to assist U.S. States, Territories and Tribes to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families and connect them with children. The AdoptUSKids website: adoptuskids.org
Geared toward families and child welfare professionals. Link to Slide Presentation
Aging out of Foster Care: Important Information for Teens
Children’s Law Center, Washington DC: List steps that youth aging out need to take to successfully age out of care. Some resources are D.C. specific but the action steps listed have general applicability. Link to Information Sheet
The Michigan Department of Human Services (MDHS) Health Oversight and Coordination Plan
December 7, 2011: In Michigan, the modified settlement agreement, Dwayne B. v. Rick Snyder et al. emphasizes the importance of MDHS monitoring the provision of health services to foster children to determine whether they are of appropriate quality and are having the intended effect. This MDHS Health Oversight and Coordination Plan is developed to establish continuity of health care for children in foster care and to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated treatment approach by all professionals involved in their care.
MDHS is committed to improving the delivery of health care services to children. The Health Oversight and Coordination Plan ensures forward movement to improved health care delivery while an infrastructure is put in place to sustain these efforts and yield an improved health care delivery system that meets the physical and mental health needs of every child in foster care. MDHS will continue to monitor best practices and propose changes to the MDHS health plan when new strategies provide promising outcomes. Link to pdf Plan
Relationship of Quality Practices to Child and Family Outcome Measurement Results
April 17, The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) Early Childhood Outcomes Center (ECO) Regional Resource Center Program (RRCP):
States and/or local early intervention programs might use this document in a variety of ways including:
1. Analyzing local early intervention program child and family outcome data to determine where improvement in program practices might be needed
2. Analyzing statewide child and family outcome data and developing statewide improvement activities
3. Orienting local early intervention programs/providers to the expected practices needed to improve child and family outcomes
4. Conducting a self‐assessment of statewide and/or local performance on each of the indicators and related practices
5. Determining the impact level of key quality practices on each of the child and family outcome indicators Link to pdf Document