Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening A Professional Guide for Evaluations

Part 1: In Theory: Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening  1. In the Beginning . . . (A History)  2. Who Are Screeners and What Do They Do?  3. Adoption Agencies: Private vs. Public  4. Identifying Adoption Issues  5. Understanding the Foster Parent Syndrome  6. Screening Single and Gay Applicants  7. Screening Child Predators  8. What You Need to Know About Infants  9. What You Need to Know About Older Children  Part 2: In Practice: Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening  10. Home Study Interview Techniques  11. First Interview with Adoptive Applicants  12. First Interview with Foster Parent Applicants  13. Follow-up Interviews with Foster and Adoptive Applicants  14. Health and Background Interviews  15. Marital and Relationship Interviews  16. Exploring Parenting Issues  17. Screener Recommendations for Adoptive and Foster Parents  18. Finalizing the Adoption  Part 3: Psychological Assessment: A Means to Resolve Complicated Evaluation Issues  19. The Referral Question: An Overview of Testing Possibilities  20. Evaluating Mood and Anxiety Problems  21. Ruling Out Major Pathology  22. Measuring Levels of Cognitive Function  23. Identifying Personal and Family Conflicts   24. Assessing Parenting Skills

Biography

Mardi Allen, Ph.D. was the 2002-2003 president of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB). She earned her doctorate in psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi with an emphasis in Child, Developmental and School Psychology. She is a book reviewer for Contemporary Psychology, a journal published by the American Psychological Association, and she has been published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
James L. Dickerson, a former public agency social worker, worked to place hundreds of children in foster and adoptive homes over a seven-year period. He later worked in a private agency focusing on international adoptions. He has written about foster and adoptive parenting for professional journals such as the Ontario Journal of Children's Aid Societies. He is also the author of numerous non-fiction books and over 2,000 magazine and newspaper articles.

"I heartily recommend Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening to all child placement professionals as an essential part of their training and professional development. Thorough and well researched, it is one of those rare books that is easy for the inexperienced professional to digest, yet at the same time it offers seasoned veterans a deeper understanding of the role they play and the techniques that improve their effectiveness in placing children and working with prospective foster and adoptive parents. Allen and Dickerson approach difficult and controversial topics in the fields of foster care and adoption without flinching, offering balanced explanations and techniques for the 'best professional practice' possible today...I wish it had been available when I began my practice thirty years ago!"

-- Sharon D. Gary, M.S., Founding Member of ATTACh (Association fot the Training and Treatment of Attachment Disorders in Children)

"Adoptive and Foster Parent Screening should be required reading for every foster care and adoptive worker as well as mental health professionals working in the adoption field. This wise and reasoned volume offers a step-by-step guide to ensure that the best matches are made between children and caregivers. It is a work that has been much needed in the field and sets the standard for volumes to follow."

 -- Sam Goldstein, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, and in private practice at the Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center (N.L.B.C.) in Salt Lake City, Utah