An article for The Republic and azcentral.com published late November highlighted the challenges that some adoptive families face that lead to a disruption or dissolution of an adoption.
The article highlighted one family whose adopted child struggled with mental health and behavioral issues so extreme, the family felt they had no other options but to “return him” to the system.
However, it is not just adoptive parents adopting from foster care who make these decisions. From famous adoptive parents like Joyce Maynard who announced this year she had dissolved the adoption of two Ethiopian adopted siblings to the case that made international news, Torry Hansen’s “return” via sending her Russian born adopted child to Russia alone on a plane, adoptive parents often struggle to find quality and effective services for their children and themselves. Some parents, such as the ones in the The Republic article, “return” the child in order to get services that they could not access on their own.
With an increase in foster care adoptions in the U.S., the need for services will also need to increase in order to support these chlidren, many of whom have experienced a significant amount of abuse, neglect and trauma. With no way of tracking national disruptions and dissolutions for all adopted children, the scope of the issue is difficult to know. For the families who struggle, however, the impact of the lack of services is devastating.
The Republic article asks, “Who helps when adoptions unravel?” Another question we need to ask is “what can we do to prevent disruptions and dissolutions to begin with?”
What are your thoughts?