Siblings in Adoption and Foster Care (eBook, PDF)

Traumatic Separations and Honored Connections
Redaktion: Silverstein, Deborah N.; Smith, Susan Livingston

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Normally, our relationships with our brothers and sisters are the longest relationships in our lives, outlasting time with our parents, and most marriages today. The sibling relationship is emotionally powerful and critically important, giving us a sense of continuity throughout life. So what happens when a child loses contact not only with his or her parents, but with siblings too? That is what happens in thousands of cases each year inside the child welfare system. Children are surrendered by parents - or taken by the government - and placed in the foster care system. There, they are often separated and sent to different foster families, or adopted by different couples. In this work, a team of top experts details for us how this added separation futher traumatizes children. This stellar team of internationally known researchers - some of whom are themselves adoptees - shares with us hard, poignant, and personal insights, as well as ways we might act to solve this widespread problem.

Contributors address not only the importance of nurturing sibling bonds and mental health strategies to support those relationships, but also the legal rights of siblings to be together, as well as issues in international adoptions. Emerging and standing programs to encourage and facilitate adoptions that keep siblings together are featured, as are programs that at least enable them to stay in contact.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 216
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Dezember 2008
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313351440
• Artikelnr.: 68528107

Autorenporträt

Deborah N. Silverstein is Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Vice President at the Kinship Center, an agency that develops and offers mental health programs for families and children. Silverstein is also a psychotherapist in private practice working with children and adults on family, individual, and marital issues. Susan Livingston Smith is Professor Emerita of Social Work at Illinois State University and Program and Project Director at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. Also a contract social worker for Mandala Adoption Services, she is a professional trainer who has delivered more than 50 workshops to adoption professionals in several states. A member of the Post Adoption Support and Preservation Task Force of the National Association of Social Workers, she received the Angels in Adoption Award from the U.S. Congress in 2006. She is also a recipient of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption Excellence Award.

Inhaltsangabe

Forward Preface List of Abbreviations Introduction: All in the Family:
Maintaining and Making Connections Chapter 1: Full, Half, Step, Foster,
Adoptive, and Other: The Complex Nature of Sibling Relationships Chapter 2:
Siblings in Foster Care and Adoption: What We Know from Research Chapter 3:
Sibling Connections: The Importance of Nurturing Sibling Bonds in the
Foster Care System Chapter 4: The Experience of Sibling Loss in the
Adjustment of Foster and Adopted Children Chapter 5: The Rights of Siblings
in Foster Care and Adoption: A Legal Perspective Chapter 6: Sibling Issues
in Open Adoption Arrangements: Non-Biologically Related Adopted Siblings
Experiences with Birthfamily Contact Chapter 7: Keeping Sibling Connection
Alive Chapter 8: The Creation of a False Self: A Survival Strategy for
Siblings of Wounded Adopted or Foster Children Chapter 9: Suddenly Sisters!
Sibling Adjustment in Reunion Chapter 10: Practice Strategies to Preserve
Sibling Relationships Chapter 11: Mental Health Strategies to Support
Sibling Relationships: Nonverbal Interventions to Process Trauma and
Maintain the Sibling Bond Chapter 12: Permanency for Siblings in Kinship
Families Conclusion: What Have We Learned? Where Do We Need To Go? Appendix
Notes Glossary References About the contributors