Using clinical assessment to enhance adoption success
There is a growing recognition that adoptive families have unique clinical needs, including the need for postadoption mental health services that are adoption competent, trauma informed, and evidence based. Although underrepresented in the literature, the assessment process is the gateway to the provision of trauma-informed, adoptioncompetent services for adoptive families. Based on a thorough review of the literature and clinical experience, the current article provides several specific recommendations for social workers and other mental health clinicians in conducting assessment with adoptive families, including domains to assess; specific strategies for assessing each domain; and guidelines for using the results of the assessment for case conceptualization, treatment planning, and family engagement. Implications for practice are discussed, including recommendations for obtaining training needed for adoption competence.
Duke Scholars
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- Social Work
- 4409 Social work
- 1607 Social Work
Citation
Published In
DOI
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Social Work
- 4409 Social work
- 1607 Social Work