Anca Bejenaru (Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu)
(Romania)
Topic: The availability of the necessary resources for families who have adopted hard-to-place children in Romania
Language: English
Abstract
In 2016, a series of legislative changes made it possible to promote the adoption of hard-to-place (HtP) children in Romania. In this category, as a rule, we find older children, children with health problems or disabilities, groups of siblings which should be adopted together, children with a history of abuse. As a result of these changes, the number of adopted children presenting one or more of the previously mentioned characteristics, increased annually. Countries with a tradition of adopting HtP children support the need for continuous and complex services and benefits to support these families. The current presentation aims to give a voice to adoptive parents and specialists in order to capture the availability of the necessary services for families who have adopted HtP children, in the period 2016-2022, from a multi-informant perspective. For this purpose, were interviewed 34 adoptive parents and 18 specialists. The results demonstrate the lack of convergence between the perception of specialists and parents regarding the accessibility of services and benefits. The parents who adopted between 2016 and March 2021 faced the most financial constrains and difficulties in identifying the specialized services. Parents who adopted after March 2021, appreciate the benefits introduced through the new legal regulations, but still encounter difficulties in identifying needed services. Specialists in the field seem to be less aware of this challenges. The study ends with proposals for social policies and practices in the field.