• Implemented 4/1/99.
• Two part intervention: (1) adoption competency training program for clinical social workers, case managers, psychologists, and psychiatrists; and (2) post-adoption support services (“guided services”) for families that adopt.
• Training topics included: (1) family systems; (2) child development; (3) open adoptions; (4) integrating adopted children into families; (5) effects of abuse and trauma on children; (6) infant mental health; and (7) adoption subsidies.
• Post-adoption support services included: (1) case management; (2) parent education; (3) information and referral; (4) support groups; (5) respite care; (6) advocacy; (7) crisis stabilization; (8) therapeutic services; (9) family/individual therapy; (10) rehabilitation support; (11) residential treatment; (12) recreational services; (13) advocacy services; and (14) research/search assistance related to birth family issues.

Training program targeted adoption and mental health professionals.

Post-adoption support services targeted title IV-E-eligible and non-IV-E eligible children with special needs and their adoptive families.

• Final evaluation report received 12/31/04.
• Pre-/post-test design used to evaluate enhanced training services component.
• Random assignment used to evaluate post-adoption support services component.

Enhanced training component

• 222 professionals completed training workshops.
• 80% completed a pre- and post-test, on which all demonstrated improvement in knowledge.

Post-adoption support services component

• 278 children in 149 families were assigned to the experimental group; 221 children in 124 families were assigned to the control group. Total sample of 499 children.
• Barriers to program implementation included delays in negotiating contracts with service providers, low referral rates, and attrition of families from the project.
• Barriers to families receiving services included: (1) type/severity of child’s needs; (2) lack of services/supports in the community; (3) lack of accurate information regarding child’s needs; and (4) lack of time (due to caregivers’ full-time employment).
• Families reported that respite care was the most commonly received service, followed by counseling for the adopted child and services from behavioral specialists.
• No statically significant differences between experimental and control group in rates of adoption dissolution (about 1 percent for entire study sample).
• No statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in most child-level outcomes, including the child’s health, cognitive development, satisfaction with the adoptive arrangement, or positive behaviors toward the adoptive parents.
• No statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in most family-level outcomes, including the caregiver’s health, level of stress, satisfaction with the adoption, parenting practices, attachment to the adopted child, communication with the child, and positive caregiving behaviors.