Homestudy Quality Question
How can we improve the quality of the adoption home studies we do and what would you like to see a home study address? What do you think is missing in the “assessment” piece?
posted by Claudia at 8:17 AM
Adoption Think Tank
A place where professionals and parents connect to make a difference in the lives of children.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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2 Comments:
Jennifer in Missouri states, "I think home study assessments could be improved to include better parenting assessment tools. Often the family's own children are included in the assessment but this does not often reflect the skills that will be needed for an adopted child. If a family has no children of their own often times they have unrealistic expectations that all of the training they receive does not seem to be able to address.:
I think one that that is important is to have the social worker (SW) who does the homestudy be the person who also does placement.
Our SW was able to make a super placement because she knew us so well. The process of homestudy lets a SW learn deeply about a family. If the family is passed on to a new SW, that SW doesn't have that depth of knowledge of the family.
I hear from people trying to adopt regularly that had someone else do their home study and now their SW doing placement sends them profiles that don't fit, that they've only talked with the SW for a few meetings and they feel like they are just stuck in a pile.
Also if the family has a relationship with their social worker, the SW can then help them reassess if needed. We all know about unrealistic prospective parents. The hard news comes better from someone you know - and they can help refocus.
So I'd like to see the same social worker start and continue the process from homestudy to placement.
==Michelle Hillison
>WRAL blog on adoption: don't underestimate baked goods
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