Ukraine

Adoption Alert

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues

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Dear Members of the American Adoption Community:

On November 3, 2009, Ukraine’s central adoption authority, the State Department for Adoption and Protection of the Rights of the Child (SDAPRC) informed the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv that it was suspending the issuances of referrals for both Ukrainian and foreign adoptive parents to visit Ukrainian orphanages due to the increased incidence of H1N1 in Ukraine. According to this notice, no prospective adoptive parents (either Ukrainian or from other countries) will be allowed to visit orphanages to meet their prospective adoptive children beginning November 3, 2009, until the measures taken by the Ukrainian Government are lifted. These measures include a cancellation of large public gatherings and suspension of school and university classes, but do not include travel restrictions. The SDAPRC will keep all pre-scheduled appointments and the adoptive families will still be able to choose children from the database, but these families will not be able to visit children and start the adoption process in the regions. Alternatively, foreign families may cancel their appointments at SDAPRC (they do not need to do anything special to cancel these appointments) and their appointments will be re-scheduled as soon as the Ukrainian government's temporary measures are ended.

As of the posting of this notice, it is unclear how long this suspension will remain in effect, but according to the SDAPRC it may last from three to six weeks, unless the Ukrainian government decides to end the H1N1 measures sooner.

According to the SDAPRC, several foreign families with the referrals issued on November 2, 2009, were already denied access to the orphanages.

The SDAPRC was required to enact this suspension in accordance with the Decree Number 3813 issued by the Ukrainian Minister for Family, Youth and Sports Yuriy Pavlenko, dated October 30, 2009. This decree was issued based on the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Number 1152, dated October 30, 2009.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will post updates as they become available.

http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html



Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

PEAR Member and Donation Drive

PEAR’s mission is to provide a voice for prospective and adoptive parents. Join our all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization to encourage ethics, transparency and support in the adoption process.

Your one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation will help us raise $5,000 during National Adoption Month to ensure a “PEAR is in the Chair” in 2010 to represent prospective and adoptive parents in adoption legislation discussions and to participate at conferences worldwide. Click http://www.pear-now.org/join.php to donate via paypal or mail.

Several levels of donations are available:

Patron level of $25
Encourager level of $50
Associate level of $100
Reformer level of $250

or pledge a minimum of $10 monthly. Email membership@pear-now.org to receive a monthly invoice.

PEAR began as a grassroots group of adoptive and prospective adoptive parents who came together to discuss the lack of a unified, respected voice for adoptive families. Our membership has grown to include adoptees, adoption professionals, and other persons interested in meaningful ethical adoption reform from the adoptive parent point of view. We believe that the existing system needs strong reforms because it does not represent the best interest of the people most impacted by the system: the children and their families, whether original or via adoption.









Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Results of POSitive Study-Demographics and Adoption Professional Sections

PEAR conducted a Observational Survey on Adoptive Parents Success, Satisfaction and Types of Post-Adoption Services (POSitive study) from January to August 2009. One entry was completed per child with a potential 129 questions covering the areas of adoption professionals, financial advice, international adoption clinics, early intervention (US only), mental health services, faith-based services, school-based services, testing and other interventions. Articles and statistical analyses will be available in early 2010.

On each Monday during National Adoption Month, we will share a segment of the results. This week we will be sharing some demographics and adoption professional results.

Demographics

The survey had 538 fully-completed entries. Ninety percent of entries were about international adoptions and ten percent were about domestic adoptions.

Fifty-nine percent of completed surveys were about female adoptees.

The top six countries of origin of the adoptees in the sample were Russia (32%), China (15%), Guatemala (10%), US (9%), Vietnam (8%), and Kazakhstan (6%). Ethiopia, India, South Korea and Ukraine each represented two percent of the sample. Thirty-one other countries were also represented.

Only 11 percent of families have moved to a different major city since completing the adoption. Thirty-seven percent had other children living in their home at the time of the adoption.

Twenty-four percent of adoptees had been labeled as "special needs" by the agency, attorney or sending country. Fifty-four percent had their homestudy conducted by a separate entity than their placing agency/attorney practice.

Adoption Professionals

Only 57 percent of those surveyed live in states or localities which require follow-up by adoption professionals. Sixty-seven percent had agencies or attorneys require adoption professional follow-up. Sixty-eight percent of those who had inter-country adoptions had a requirement from the country of origin to have follow-up from adoption professionals. Seventy-eight percent of those who had inter-country adoptions had post-placement reporting requirements.

Seventy-six percent of agencies assist in some way with post-adoption reports with the main help being mailing forms (57 percent). Forty-five percent were provided forms and thirty-five percent had assistance with social worker meetings. A small number were provided with translations, phone consults or reminders. The comment section showed that there was displeasure that some agencies did not assist.

Our questions about adoption professionals giving contact information to adoptive parents for post adoption support for health, education, financial and emotional/peer support showed that this is not a service that is well-provided to adoptive parents. Peer adoption support group contact information was the most likely category of information given (51% ). Only 32 percent received contact information about early intervention resources, 17 percent received general pediatrician contact information, 16 percent received contact information about legal assistance, 14 percent received contact information about mental health professionals or financial assistance and 13 percent received contact information about educational interventions. A small percent received international adoption doctor contact information or re-adoption information.

Next week we will be sharing financial, International Adoption Clinic and Early Intervention results.









Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Post Adoption Resource: FASD and Brain Differences

Better Endings New Beginnings has developed a free guidebook for families and caregivers to fill out on behalf of their child, and then give to new teachers, therapists, care providers, etc to help others understand their child better.


One is specific to FASD/prenatal alcohol exposure, the other only mentions brain differences – the info is the same in both booklets. These documents can be found at

http://www.betterendings.org/downloads/AAM_FASD.pdf (specific for children with FASD)

and

http://www.betterendings.org/downloads/AAM_BrainDifferences.pdf (for children with other brain differences)

A checklist of overlapping characteristics is also a helpful tool http://www.betterendings.org/Overlapping_Characteristics.pdf









Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Adoptive Families Magazine "A TB Regulation Victory"

Adoptive Families magazine December 2009 issue, Adoptalk New and Notes section, article “A TB Regulation Victory” contains several misleading statements.


The article can be accessed here http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/news.php

Tuberculosis screening criteria and regulations are complex.

The statement “The regulations held adopted children to a higher standard than children born to American parents in another country, or even to tourists” has two flaws.

The first flaw implies that the 2007 TB screening guidelines to obtain an immigrant visa no longer differentiate between guidelines for children adopted internationally by US citizens and children screened in the US. The September 18 CDC updates are minor tweaks to practical screening steps for children aged two to ten years. The regulations still require screening that goes above and beyond screening for TB in children born in the US.

The second flaw is the implication that adopted children should not be held to a higher standard than children born to American parents. PEAR’s Position on Tuberculosis Management in International Adoptees, page 2 at http://tiny.cc/PEARTB describes why adoptees who have been in institutional care should be held to a higher standard. The excerpted passage:

“Children born to American citizens abroad are not and never have been in the same patient population as international adoptees. Differences in international adoptees include use of BCG vaccine, malnutrition, poor hygienic living conditions, institutional settings, being exposed to adult caregivers with TB, and being exposed in their communities to adults with TB and HIV. As a whole, children being adopted from these circumstances have a huge disparity of immune status compared to children born to American citizens abroad. Worse, this point deliberately misleads prospective parents away from the very real problem: the potential of foreign-born children residing in orphanages in high-prevalence TB countries having latent TB, active TB or MDR-TB, and the impact this will have not only on the child, but the adoptive family, and the community once the child has immigrated. “

The last paragraph of the article misleads the reader to believe that the waiver process used by the adoptive family was something unique or added after advocacy on September 18, 2009. It actually was built in to the original 2007 TB screening guidelines. PEAR’s Position on Tuberculosis Management in International Adoptees, page 2, describes the waiver process. The excerpted passage:

“The CDC guidelines include a Class A waiver for immigrants with active TB. This waiver allows the parent to opt to bring a child with active TB to the US as long as specific conditions are met. Conditions include a US doctor and state health officer signing the waiver to take responsibility for treatment of the child, the child reporting to the doctor or health facility upon arrival to the US for appropriate treatment, parental agreement to comply with the entire therapy, and parental acknowledgement of financial burden of treatment. The CDC technical instructions addendum that is dated September 18, 2009 includes further details of the Class A waiver system and electronic tracking to ensure complete TB treatment.”

We want to remind the public that that removing country of origin screening removes the safeguard to US citizens. In addition, such a policy shift would put the burden on the adoptive family to infer the necessity of the testing and subsequent cost of possible treatment, which was likely not a planned adoption expense.

The recently-completed survey by PEAR shows that only 37 percent of the 486 international adoptive parent respondents used an International Adoption Clinic or provider with international adoption expertise post-adoption. Only 57 percent of the adoptive parent respondents had their child tested with the Mantoux TB screening test post-adoption









Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/