Abstract
Background
The circumstance in which internationally adopted children are born and live prior to adoption put them at high risk for health issues. Nearly all adoptees have complex medical conditions, the most common being cleft lip/palate, orthopaedic problems, infectious diseases, congenital heart diseases, and/or nutritional deficiencies, as well as cognitive impairments, and/or developmental delays. Specifically, nearly all institutionalized children will have expressive language delays and most will have motor delays. Although improvement can be seen with time, most do not attain their full potential. Additionally, by nature of adoption, all children experience trauma. In some situations, this will be further compounded by neglect and/or abuse faced prior to adoption, or during institutionalization. Consequently, almost all adoptees develop attachment difficulties. Trained medical professionals are required to screen, monitor, and provide management suggestions for this complex and unique population.
Objectives
To our knowledge, parental experience of an international adoption clinic has not yet been published. This parent-based evaluation of the parental experience at a pediatric tertiary care center’s international adoption clinic, provides insights that may help guide provision of care for this high-risk population in our centre, throughout the country, and internationally.
Design/Methods
A qualitative, exploratory design was employed using telephone interviews of eighteen parents of adoptees assessed by a pediatric tertiary care center’s international adoption clinic since 2010. This approach was chosen to allow for more extensive exploration of parental experience, and to identify barriers and facilitators of care. Interviews were 30 to 90 minutes, semi-structured, and transcribed verbatim. Field notes were made during the interviews to note intonation and major concerns, and were used to supplement transcripts during data analysis. Questions covered experiences with pre-adoption counselling, arranging the first clinic visit, health and developmental assessments, life after clinic discharge, and general comments/suggestions. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcripts using Maguire’s step-by-step guide.
Results
Analysis resulted in four main themes and seven subthemes. The first theme was “difficulty of international adoption”. The second theme “utility and impact of services offered” was subdivided into “pre-adoption counselling”, “clinic visits and medical assessments”, and “post adoption seminars”. The third theme “the administrative procedures of the clinic” was subdivided into “timing and ease of organizing a first visit”, and “hours of operation”. The final theme “gaps in care” was divided into “ongoing difficulty with attachment”, and “allied healthcare services”. These results demonstrate that parents of internationally adopted children often feel overwhelmed by the medical needs of their children and feel unsupported. They recommend comprehensive and in-person pre-adoption counselling with standard referral processes to ensure timely access to care. Post-arrival medical and developmental assessments should be flexible and complete. Most importantly, clinics should incorporate support from allied healthcare professionals, including social work, psychology, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy. In particular, parents were interested in further management of attachment.
Conclusion
This first parent-based evaluation of the parental experience at a pediatric tertiary care center’s international adoption clinic provides insights that may help guide provision of care to this high-risk population in centres across Canada and internationally.
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