Respite Care Services for Families Who Adopt Children With Special Needs, Page 4

A Synthesis of Demonstration Program Final Reports (4/02)

Recommendations

Based on their experiences, respite care grant project staff offered a number of recommendations that they believe will contribute to successful respite care programs for families who have adopted children with special needs. Their recommendations are summarized here.

Providers
Programs should conduct ongoing recruitment efforts throughout the life of a program, provide ongoing pre-service and in-service training, include natural helpers in training, recruit providers who live close to families' homes when in-home services are offered, and recruit more providers with specialized skills such as sign language.

Families
Programs should educate families about the nature of respite care, clarify their understanding of the service, and be responsive to their concerns. As one program stated, these activities should be done "early and often." Assessment of families' respite care needs should be done prior to designing the program's services.

Services
Services should target families' identified needs and appropriately address the types of special needs children in the target population (e.g., medical fragility, emotional or behavioral disability, or older children), and should be provided in a manner that families desire (e.g., in-home and/or out-of-home, hourly and/or weekends). Services should include group activities for children and families, and siblings of the adopted children with special needs should also be served.

Program Management/Administration
Allow ample time for starting-up, establishing trusting relationships among agencies, and negotiating contracts with vendors. This includes ensuring that the provider agency can serve the target population and provide the necessary services, and consider using a community-based agency rather than a government agency because some families have a mistrust of government agencies. Many programs emphasized agency collaboration. Other recommendations included engaging parents in program design and management and avoiding legal problems with liability issues.

Public Awareness
Raise awareness among adoptive families and the public about the need for respite care services for families who have adopted children with special needs.

Summary

The adoption community recognizes that respite care is an essential post-adoption support service for families who have adopted children with special needs. The knowledge gained from prior demonstration programs can assist others in the field who are developing or enhancing their own programs. Future grantees can build on the lessons learned from the eight programs summarized here.

Credits: Child Welfare Information Gateway (http://www.childwelfare.gov)

Adoption Profiles

Jeff & Melissa We are so excited about adopting again; it has been our dream for many years to have two children. We can't wait to share the love we have for one... [more] other adoption profiles | add your profile A service of Adoption Profiles, LLC