Providing specialist clinical support for adoptive parents and adoption professionals
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Providing specialist clinical support for adoptive parents and adoption professionals

Philip John Archard Mental health practitioner, child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS), Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester, England
Jack Blackwell Honorary assistant psychologist, CAMHS, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester, England
Isobel Moore Clinical psychologist, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Derby, England
Louisa Briggs Deardon Assistant psychologist, CAMHS, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester, England
Tina Adkins Assistant professor, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, US
Michelle O’Reilly Associate professor of communication in mental health, University of Leicester, Leicester, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To read about the core aspects of the role of a specialist practitioner lead for adoption in a CAMHS team

  • To be aware of various methods of delivering advice, training, education and support to adoptive parents and adoption professionals

  • To appreciate the value of social science research expertise in developing clinical support for adoptive parents and adoption professionals

Children who are adopted are at greater risk of experiencing mental health issues than their nonadopted peers. This has influenced the development of dedicated care pathways, teams and clinical posts for adopted children in child and adolescent mental health services.

This article describes the role of a specialist practitioner lead for adoption, detailing the core duties, which include providing consultation clinics for professionals and parents, providing mental health awareness training for prospective adopters and the introduction of a group-based psychoeducation intervention. The article provides practice-based reflection and service evaluation findings on these core duties. Changes in practice during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the shift to remote care delivery, as well as the support role provided by nursing students and assistant and trainee psychologists during the consultation clinics, are also discussed.

Mental Health Practice. 25, 6, 27-33. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2022.e1632

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

philip.archard@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Archard PJ, Blackwell J, Moore I et al (2022) Providing specialist clinical support for adoptive parents and adoption professionals. Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2022.e1632

Published online: 30 September 2022

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