Adoption pioneer speaks about the changing world of adoption

As a pioneer in the field of adoption and post adoption services, Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D., LCSW, LMFT, knows that the world of adoption has changed since her own adoption sixty years ago.

“So many things have changed. In the early days of adoption it was a supply and demand kind of situation,” notes Pavao. Today, she thinks it is more important for anyone involved in the adoption process to be child-centered–to find families for children rather than find children for families.

Once those families have been found, and an adoption has been finalized, Pavao advocates for the utilization of post adoption services to overcome the challenges in “understanding and making sense of adoption” for all parties—birth family, adoptive family and adopted persons.

“The importance of post adoption services is challenging. There is a lot of loss involved and often trauma as well. Providing services in an ongoing way is very important,” says Pavao.

She notes that the job of the new adoptive parent is to be aware of, and sensitive to, identity issues the child may experience so as to make the youth more comfortable during the transition and afterwards.

Pavao points to the increasing trend of gay and lesbian couples adopting to explain her opinion. In the past, she says that one of the partners in these couples had to act as a single parent to adopt. Now, people are more overt about their sexual orientation. That they are gay or lesbian is important to their identification as a family and that is to be considered as they go through the adoption process. She argues that secrecy did not work in adoption of old, and secrecy does not work in the present.

“These are people that are good people that want to be parents,” says Pavao.

And as the world of adoption continues to change, the desire to be a parent and welcome a child into a family is one constant Pavao views as an important characteristic that anyone interested in adopting should have.

More of Pavao’s take on the changes occurring in the world of adoption can be heard during the morning keynote address “The Changing World of Adoption: How Far Have We Come,” which she is scheduled to deliver during the Adoption Resource Network at Hillside Children’s Center’s 17th annual conference: “The Changing World of Adoption” being held on November 8, 2008, at the Bay Trail Middle School, 1760 Scribner Road, Penfield, NY 14526.

“I think the conference is terrific. Everyone should consider attending. They will be surprised and will learn something about themselves, their loved ones, and their community,” says Pavao.

Registration for the conference is now open and can be done online at http://www.hillside.com/Services/Adoption/conference.htm. For more on the work Dr. Pavao is doing, log on to The Center For Family Connections web site at http://www.kinnect.org. Her book is The Family of Adoption, Beacon Press, 2005.