We adopted our daughter in the UK when she was 7 prior to the adoption videos were made by us (we were also her former social workers) when she was with her mother and birth family. We also spent a lot of time building a life story book. Post adoption we encouraged her to have contact/visitation to her birth Mum 3 times a year. At 9 her mother was found dead. Our daugter who has learning difficulties and is now 21 has relied on the videos and story book to help her make sense of her background. My website http://www.mychildcontact.com has been designed with our experience of the needs of children to know their birth parents. It's really important.
Kenn Griffiths is an adoptive parent, social worker, founder of mychildcontact.com and a writer and is available for interview and comment.
Showing posts with label adoption and child contact. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption and child contact. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
CHILD CONTACT WEBSITE MENTIONED IN PARLIAMENT
CHILD CONTACT WEBSITE MENTIONED IN PARLIAMENT
Staffordshire based international social website mychildcontact.com’s CEO Kenn Griffiths’ advice was sought by MP Charlie Elphicke to help his Bill to improve services for children missing out on contact with their children. The MP for Dover told the House about Kenn’s work and used case studies from the site’s forum.
Kenn believes that if you can get the best of experts and best practice in one place then many children would still be having quality contact to an absent parent.
Mychildcontact.com is Kenn’s answer to poor services and practice. The site is a one-stop-shop offering advice and experts including independent social workers who are not restricted by Local Government Financial restrictions.
Launched in January the site has had more than 140 million page impressions from Facebook Ads alone.
Kenn is available for interview.
Call 07831 612688 Or mail kenn@mychildcontact.com
View More on our site http://www.mychildcontact.com
Staffordshire based international social website mychildcontact.com’s CEO Kenn Griffiths’ advice was sought by MP Charlie Elphicke to help his Bill to improve services for children missing out on contact with their children. The MP for Dover told the House about Kenn’s work and used case studies from the site’s forum.
Kenn believes that if you can get the best of experts and best practice in one place then many children would still be having quality contact to an absent parent.
Mychildcontact.com is Kenn’s answer to poor services and practice. The site is a one-stop-shop offering advice and experts including independent social workers who are not restricted by Local Government Financial restrictions.
Launched in January the site has had more than 140 million page impressions from Facebook Ads alone.
Kenn is available for interview.
Call 07831 612688 Or mail kenn@mychildcontact.com
View More on our site http://www.mychildcontact.com
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Facebook adoption
FACEBOOK CONTACT
FOR
ADOPTED CHILDREN
AND
THEIR PARENTS
I’m a private investigator regularly asked to locate adopted children. I am a former adoption officer with a large local authority and I have an adopted daughter.
I can see the attraction for anyone involved in contact and adoption issues of using Facebook and other social networking sites to get in touch with their lost loved ones.
However, unsolicited and unmanaged contact is probably the most damaging way to bring about a positive outcome for all concerned.
I fully understand the need to make contact. I can see how the adults may believe that their child is distressed and lonely, especially when they are airing their views on social websites.
Most teenagers will go through a difficult time, but for the adopted, adolescents can be a very traumatic and challenging time. Putting their thoughts and feelings on the web’s pages can be likened to a page of their personal diary. Quite often they do not see the dangers of other people reading and internalising what they think are problems solely due to adoption, when in fact they are emotional ‘growing pains’.
Before reading too much into the writings think about your own transition to adulthood. Remember how traumatic that was! Did you want any adults involved with you at that time? I think not! Your friends were the ones you wanted around you. It’s the same on social websites kids want kids, not relatives, especially relatives they don’t know. Absent parents turning up ‘out of the blue’ is a recipe for disaster.
In every case that I investigated I made it known at the outset that if I did locate the child or absent parents, I would let them know that I’d located them but would not divulge their whereabouts unless they wanted to me to. Even then I built in a cooling off period. Once the decision had been made to meet up I then set about counselling everyone involved not least the adopting parents who quite often were the most threatened and vulnerable.
None of this can happen on a social network. This is dangerous and potentially damaging ground that should not be trodden without a well equipped, qualified professional.
FOR
ADOPTED CHILDREN
AND
THEIR PARENTS
I’m a private investigator regularly asked to locate adopted children. I am a former adoption officer with a large local authority and I have an adopted daughter.
I can see the attraction for anyone involved in contact and adoption issues of using Facebook and other social networking sites to get in touch with their lost loved ones.
However, unsolicited and unmanaged contact is probably the most damaging way to bring about a positive outcome for all concerned.
I fully understand the need to make contact. I can see how the adults may believe that their child is distressed and lonely, especially when they are airing their views on social websites.
Most teenagers will go through a difficult time, but for the adopted, adolescents can be a very traumatic and challenging time. Putting their thoughts and feelings on the web’s pages can be likened to a page of their personal diary. Quite often they do not see the dangers of other people reading and internalising what they think are problems solely due to adoption, when in fact they are emotional ‘growing pains’.
Before reading too much into the writings think about your own transition to adulthood. Remember how traumatic that was! Did you want any adults involved with you at that time? I think not! Your friends were the ones you wanted around you. It’s the same on social websites kids want kids, not relatives, especially relatives they don’t know. Absent parents turning up ‘out of the blue’ is a recipe for disaster.
In every case that I investigated I made it known at the outset that if I did locate the child or absent parents, I would let them know that I’d located them but would not divulge their whereabouts unless they wanted to me to. Even then I built in a cooling off period. Once the decision had been made to meet up I then set about counselling everyone involved not least the adopting parents who quite often were the most threatened and vulnerable.
None of this can happen on a social network. This is dangerous and potentially damaging ground that should not be trodden without a well equipped, qualified professional.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
