Formed Families: Adoption of Children With Handicaps

One of the first books to thoroughly address the current status of adoption of children with handicaps, Formed Families provides broad coverage of the issues relating to the adoption of children with disabilities. This timely new volume explores the dramatic changes made in the past several decades regarding adoption, and summarizes the present status of principles, practice, and outcomes with regard to these adoptions. Concerned professionals can find here all the answers about clinical programs, legal issues, estimates of frequency, and important factors related to positive and negative outcomes of these adoptions. The range of topics presented make this a valuable reference for human service and medical professionals, mental health workers, genetics counselors, lawyers, judges, and those individuals concerned with public policy issues regarding adoption.

Chapters are written by social work practitioners and academicians, specialists in education and psychology, an attorney, and child welfare consultants and advocates. These authorities include very specific, much needed information on all facets of the adoption of children with disabilities, including:

• the processes that both expedite and impede the placement of children with disabilities
• data on the results of placements, including postplacement services designed to facilitate adjustment
• the impact that a severely disabled child can have on a family, and the factors, both internal and external, that may influence the decision to place a child outside the family
• the legal issues pertinent to the adoption of children with disabling conditions
• agency policies and practices as well as organizational variables that can affect the adoption of children with developmental disabilities
• strategies to facilitate successful adoptions
• outcomes of these adoptions