Review: Facilitating Meaningful Contact in Adoption and Fostering
Stuart Hannah
Monday, September 14, 2015
Louis Sydney, Elsie Price and Adoptionplus
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-84905-508-6
216 pages
£19.99
I have often been very challenged by how decisions are made and maintained regarding the contact children and young people have with their birth family members when adopted or in care. It was therefore refreshing to be asked to review this timely book that has its roots in the work of the voluntary adoption placement and support agency Adoption Plus based in Buckinghamshire.
This accessible book takes the reader on a journey through many aspects of contact and how it might be conceptualised and planned with the child's experience in mind. Each chapter is full of moving, pertinent case examples.
The book has a wonderful foreword by Dr Kim Golding quoting the priest and psychologist, Henri Nouwen, in stating how hard it is to be compassionate, while acknowledging that this is indeed just what children adopted or in care require from us all. The quote speaks to how hard and painful it can be to remain in touch with the emotional pain and suffering the children experience and how easy it can be to act in ways that lack a more mindful, empathic approach.
The introduction lays a strong, timeless theoretical foundation in attachment theory, neuroscience and trauma informed approaches. We are introduced to a model of recovery that the authors argue may be undermined by unstructured and planned approaches to contact, an unwillingness to talk and think about the child's care and trauma story resulting in difficulties in the child creating a coherent narrative in relation to their past, present and future. For me this really is the essence of the value of this book to the children and families touched by trauma in the care system.
The meat of this book applies a core model for facilitating contact incorporating preparation, facilitated contact and space to debrief. It also usefully attends to the modern realities of how social media and the internet have significantly changed the whole landscape of contact. It journeys through contact for babies and toddlers, contact during transitions, letterbox contact, video contact, sibling contact, the impact of divorce in adoption, when contact cannot happen, the "long shadow" of adoption and contact for those in kinship care.
If I was to sum this book up I would say it is a vivid description of sense-making between adult and child minds. It highlights the need the child mind has for the executive and reflective function of the adult mind. It serves as a helpful guide in assisting those of us working with those adopted or in care to fully imagine, plan and utilise the potential therapeutic value of contact done well. I wholly recommend this book to all who care for and offer the compassion needed by children and families impacted on by separation, trauma and loss.
Reviewed by Stuart Hannah, child psychotherapist and social worker, North Leeds Psychotherapy Services