Understanding this International Problem

Introduction

Some of the questions we receive through our Parents AskERIC service are related to adoption. They might be requests for information on adoption support organizations or perhaps questions about learning issues that affect children who have been displaced from their biological families. There are many children both in the United States and internationally in need of a permanent family, and as concerned parents, and as a society, it is important that we understand this problem while developing ways to support the healthy development of all children in our society. May's feature article looks at the issue of unaccompanied and displaced children and provides more resources for interested parents and professionals. The Community Spotlight highlights two programs that have been developed to serve the needs of displaced children.

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In 1995, an estimated one million American children were displaced from their families (McKelvey & Stevens, 1994, p. 10). They may be found in foster care, detention centers, hospitals, residential and therapeutic homes, a friend's home, or on the streets. Internationally, the United Nations estimates that, of the 18 million refugees, 80% are women and children ("Families Who Flee," 1993, p. 1). While exact numbers are difficult to track, it is estimated that 50% of these refugees are without the support of a parent or relative and are without any consistent international policy for their protection.

Frequently called "forgotten," "throwaway," "abandoned," "orphaned," or "street children," these names elicit strong sentiment but do little to address the international magnitude of the problem. Ressler, Boothby, and Steinbock (1988), during their work with refugees, defined this population as "unaccompanied children" or "a person who is under the age of majority and not accompanied by parent or legal guardian, or another person who by law or custom is responsible for him or her" (p. 7).

Historically, there has always been a population of unaccompanied children. They were usually children who were orphaned due to war, plague, or disaster. Statistics about family separations have been available only since World War II, when estimates for the entire number of abandoned or homeless children were as high as 13,000,000 (Ressler et al., 1988, pp. 9-12). Block and Drucker (1992) in their book Rescuers portray the courage of many families throughout Europe who, at risk to their own safety, sheltered Jewish children during this treacherous time. Any provision that was made for these children was done by extended family, the local community, or by an "underground network." As might be expected, some communities supported and protected children more competently than others.

It was often the religious organizations that absorbed the children when extended families or communities could not, or would not, accept the responsibility. These institutions may have included education for the children and were the forerunners of boarding schools and modern orphanages. The gradual introduction of laws, through charitable statutes, from the 1500s through the Reformation, showed the change in society's attitudes from a family focus to one where support for orphans and relief of poverty was developing into a local and national responsibility. The statutes also noted that some of these charitable institutions were diverting funds into uncharitable pockets and that laws were required to guard and protect the welfare of needy children (Jones, 1969, p. 22).

The first orphanage in the United States was established in 1729 to house the children of settlers killed by Indians (Shealy, 1995, p. 566). Contrary to popular belief, these early orphanages were often considered community resources where parents could leave their children temporarily if they were unable to care for them due to poverty or illness. The parents could return for the child when they were self-sufficient again (Laskas, 1994, p. 104).

The orphanage has continued as an institution used by society to care for needy children in much of the world. However, in America, reliance on this institutional approach began to change during the 1950s when researchers exposed the detrimental effects of institutionalized care (Van Biema, 1994, p. 59). Some of those effects included developmental delays, poor impulse control, poor concentration, and the possibility that a child suffering from long-term deprivation may be unable to form lasting attachments to others and to discriminate between right and wrong (Ressler et al., 1988, pp. 154-157).

Policy changes and practice followed this research. In 1980, the Federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act indicated that for the long-term care of displaced children "families were almost always preferable to institutions" (Van Biema, 1994, p. 59). The new goal was to make institutionalized stays brief, to place children with foster families, to try to reunify biological families, or to provide for permanency planning in a foster or adoptive family (Van Biema, 1994, p. 59). There is a similar recommendation for unaccompanied children in emergency situations that states: "Family care within the child's own community should be the first placement option considered" (Ressler et al., 1988, p. 312).

Today, children may be unaccompanied or displaced because of war, refugee movement, abandonment, abuse, or neglect. They may also be orphans or runaways. Regardless of the reason for their plight, the faster and more successfully we can meet the needs of this population, the more likely they are to develop into productive members of society. However, some experts in the child welfare field (McKelvey & Stevens, 1994, pp. 43, 80-81; Shealy, 1995, p. 566; Van Biema, 1994, p. 60) agree that effective delivery of services to these children has been hindered by several factors, including:

* An increased population of displaced children. Teen pregnancies, substance abuse, wars, the refugee movements, and the AIDS epidemic have created an unprecedented burden on social support systems in many parts of the world.

* An increased population of children that are needy. Effects of prenatal substance abuse, limited nutrition and inadequate care during early childhood, or being a witness to violent acts of war have affected many of the children available for adoption. Many need long-term therapeutic interventions-something a typical adoptive family may not be able to provide.

* A deficit model that focuses on illness instead of prevention. Annual averages for the cost of a child in group placement or long-term psychiatric treatment range from $22,400 to $103,000, and these costs may be reimbursed through health insurance. Although family preservation and foster care efforts cost between $2,800 and $5,000 per family, such efforts are unlikely to receive funding through insurance.

* A lack of consensus among child welfare professionals about effective approaches for this current problem. Some professionals feel that if foster and adoptive families were supported and compensated they could provide more effective support for needier children. Others believe that the typical foster family or family preservation model is unable to cope with the current influx of children.

* Poor communication and lack of collaboration between programs and agencies. Professional "turf" battles as well as lack of knowledge about the program or services that are available in an area complicate and undermine the support of individual children.
In spite of these barriers, there are a number of successful programs available to support needy children. One example is a therapeutic foster care program that provides extensive training to the foster family because the agency considers the family as part of the child's treatment team. In some areas, the family is provided with support by a 24-hour, on-call, parent supervisor. Other model programs include residential sites, such as the Nashua Children's Home in New Hampshire. Unlike other programs that may admit children from many different locations, the Nashua Children's Home restricts intake to children who reside within 30 miles of the home. This practice facilitates greater family involvement in the child's therapy. The treatment process also requires that one staff member be responsible for the child and that the majority of services being provided by the community. This approach has significantly increased their success rate with reunifying families and has reduced the average residential stay for each child.

Internationally, small nonprofit organizations and religious groups like AIDS Widows and Orphans Family Support (AWOFS) in Uganda also work to assist unaccompanied children and other AIDS victims in Africa. AWOF and similar groups are like "street-corner runts" (Balzar, 1995, p. A2) compared to the large international relief agencies such as World Vision or the International Rescue Committee. Father Collins, of AIDS Widows and Orphans Family Support, serves 640 families by providing a means for financial sustenance and a way to keep the remnants of a family together. He visits families weekly and helps them with small home businesses, growing their own food, or providing assistance where needed. Many of these families are headed by a teen who is the oldest child in the sibling group (Balzar, 1995, p. A2).

Even though there are a number of issues that are interwoven and complicating the development of programs such as the Nashua Children's Home or AWOFS, as concerned parents and child welfare professionals, we can investigate innovative solutions, along with foster parenting and adoption, so that all children within our society will have the support they need for healthy development.

For more information:

Miller, M., & Ward, N. (1996). With eyes wide open: A workbook for parents adopting international children over age one. Minneapolis, MN: LN Press.

Silber, K., & Martinez Dorner, P. (1989). Children of open adoption and their families. San Antonio, TX: Corona Publishing.

McKelvey, C. (1995). Give them roots, then let them fly: Understanding attachment therapy. The Attachment Center at Evergreen, P.O. Box 2764, Evergreen, CO 80437. Telephone: 303-674-1910
URL: http://www.attachmentcenter.org/

What you should know before you adopt a child. (1997). The Attachment Center at Evergreen, P.O. Box 2764, Evergreen, CO 80437. Telephone: 303-674-1910
URL: http://www.attachmentcenter.org/

Adoption Assistance Information & Support
This Web site provides adoption resources to everyone who is touched by adoption. The emphasis is on getting the adoption process started.
URL: http://www.adopting.org/

UNICEF: Unaccompanied children
This Web site gives a brief description of the issue of children who are unaccompanied due to war or refugee status.
URL: http://www.unicef.org/graca/alone.htm

Sources:

Balzar, John. (1995, November 23). In Africa, families orphaned by AIDS. Boston Globe, p. A2.

Block, Gay, & Drucker, Malker. (1992). Rescuers: Portraits of moral courage in the holocaust. New York: Holmes and Meier.

Families who flee. (1993, November). 1994 International Year of the Family. New York: United Nations, p. 1.

Huntley Pesavento, Barbara. (1993, June). Treatment considerations for refugee children: Learning from torture and abuse. Paper presented at Harvard Medical School Dept. of Continuing Education Conference, Cambridge, MA.

Jones, G. (1969). History of the law of charity 1532-1827. London: Cambridge University Press.

Laskas, Jeanne Marie. (1994, November 1). Someone to watch over me. Redbook, 184, 104-107, 134-136.

McKelvey, Carole, & Stevens, JoEllen. (1994). Adoption crisis: The truth behind adoption and foster care. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing.

Ressler, Everett, Boothby, Neil, & Steinbock, Daniel. (1988). Unaccompanied children: Care and protection in wars, natural disasters and refugee movements. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shealy, Craig. (1995). From Boys Town to Oliver Twist: Separating fact from fiction in welfare reform and out-of home placement of children and youth. American Psychologist, 50(8), 555-580.

Van Biema, D. (1994, December 12). The storm over orphanages. Time, 58-62.