Statements of support regarding the subsidy discount for Fiom
18/09/2012-Category:Legislation,About Fiom
Jane Eales , late discovery adoptee living in Sydney
Monica van Berkum , director Pharos
Professor Jan Kremer (gynaecologist) and drs. Dana Huppelschoten (doctor-researcher) Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology UMC St Radboud, Nijmegen
Diana Veldman , director/executive director Rutgers WPF
mr. drs. JM (Jan) de Vries , director MEE Netherlands
drs. M(arc) Tijhuis , general director of World Children
dr. Chris Verhaak , clinical psychologist, chairman of POINT, network for psychologists and social workers in the field of the psychosocial aspects of infertility
Board Freya , association for people with fertility problems
Prof. dr. dr. René van Hoksbergen , emiritus professor of adoption
Linda Sprado , author of 'Looking for my father'
Various adoption-related organizations showing their support for us
Jane Eales, late discovery adoptee living in Sydney:
I am writing to personally express my strong support for the continuation of funding for the ISS Netherlands service and for the organization managing this service, Ambulante Fiom. From my perspective it is an essential part of the ISS world-wide team, and without the support of Ambulatory Fiom, it would be almost impossible continue on with my search for my father.
I am a late discovery adoptee, adopted in London just after the war. I was forbidden to search for my birth parents by my adoptive family, but for health reasons and curiosity, eventually in 2006 I approached the ISS in Australia for help. After discovering my mother was a spy working for Dutch Intelligence during the Second World War, I was given good reasons from very credible sources to suggest that my father was Dutch. The ISS in Australia contacted ISS Netherlands, and Ambulante Fiom to ask for assistance in finding my father.
The issues involved in adoption are rarely understood. And so I was very impressed with the professionalism, and the effective team work between Damon Martin at ISS in Australia and Hans van Hooff, the Director of Ambulante Fiom in the Netherlands. They handled my situation and all the parties involved in Holland with appropriate discretion, sensitivity and care.
My issues are not yet resolved, and I would like to continue my search. If there is a cut to the ISS Netherlands service, my situation will probably never be resolved. There is no comparable organization I can call on to determine who my father might be.
There are many adoptees in my situation. Please do ensure that the present level of capacity, competence and professionalism currently present in ISS in the Netherlands, and Ambulante Fiom is maintained.
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Monica van Berkum, director Pharos
I can hardly imagine that the help that the FIOM offers regarding decision-making in the event of unintended pregnancy, abortion, renunciation, surrogacy and identity questions will disappear after adoption.
The Fiom is a very accessible facility that has been offering expert support for years regarding vulnerable matters in vulnerable life situations. Expert support often helps people through this in a good way.
It seems to me rather inefficient that every municipality should arrange this itself.
Why let something disappear that helps prevent problems and functions well?
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Professor Jan Kremer (gynaecologist) and drs. Dana Huppelschoten (doctor-researcher) Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology UMC St Radboud, Nijmegen:
Accidental childlessness has such an impact on their lives for couples that good counseling is essential. Not only during the fertility treatment, but certainly also afterwards, if it turns out that the treatments have not produced the desired result. We notice that couples benefit enormously from this good aftercare and guidance that the FIOM has provided in recent years.
Thousands of couples have been able to give a place to unintentionally childless. It would therefore be a very bad thing if couples can no longer receive this aftercare, because the FIOM loses its subsidies.
Since there is no other national organization that provides aftercare in this way, we want to underline the importance of the FIOM.
So don't leave these patients out in the cold and also give them the opportunity to give the sadness of being childless a place!
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Diana Veldman, director/executive director Rutgers WPF:
There are numerous problems as a result of unwanted pregnancy, abortion, adoption and unfulfilled wishes for children that require expert guidance.
Fiom can provide this assistance and has specific knowledge in this area.
Rutgers WPF is active in the field of sexual health promotion. Prevention of unwanted pregnancy is an important objective of our organization.
Although contraceptive use is relatively good in the Netherlands, unwanted pregnancy will always occur. If help is then needed to make a proper assessment of how to deal with this, Fiom can offer expert and independent help.
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mr. drs. JM (Jan) de Vries, director MEE Netherlands:
The assistance provided by the FIOM is also of great importance in the case of pregnancies of women with disabilities.
The disappearance of this would have major consequences for some of our clients. The MEE organizations would very much regret this.
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drs. M(arc) Tijhuis, general director of Wereldkinderen:
It shows shortsightedness and carelessness on the part of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to shorten the FIOM in this way and so abruptly.
As a prosperous country, the front door is open to offer a loving family here to children who cannot find a home in their country of origin. We have lovingly cared for about 40,000 children in the Netherlands. As long as it goes well. Adoptees and their parents have a special place in our society, adoptees encounter identity and search questions. They often seek contact with each other and sometimes need low-threshold specialist help. Now they are running into a closed back door as a result of this policy choice. An emergency exit nowhere to be seen. Our joint activity for the entire adoption triangle; “connected by adoption” has already had to believe it. Our discussions to further learn from each other's professionalism and profit in the field of search queries are in the doldrums.
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dr. Chris Verhaak, clinical psychologist, president of POINT, network for psychologists and social workers in the field of the psychosocial aspects of infertility:
Couples with fertility problems in the cold.
The Minister's intended decision to drastically curtail FIOM's help for people with unwanted childlessness leaves a big gap in the reception options for this group. Psychosocial care for these people requires specialist knowledge of the emotional impact of unwanted childlessness. This knowledge is not available to the average psychologist and psychotherapist in primary and secondary care.
Repeatedly let couples know via the website of Freya, the patient organization for people with fertility problems, that the usual care is inadequate. Until now, psychosocial care for people with fertility problems has mostly been provided by centers for reproductive medicine. During the treatment process, they use some psychosocial care, often on an ad hoc basis. However, no financial cover is available for this.
VWS assumes that psychosocial care for couples with fertility problems could be provided by these centers. However, the funding for this is lacking. Moreover, it is not desirable to allow couples who have finished treatment for their fertility problems to be treated by these centers with regard to their psychosocial problems. It is precisely indicated at this stage of the lives of these people that they say goodbye to being a 'patient' and pick up the thread of their normal life again. The best way to do this is with low-threshold care close to home.
From research we know that out of 4 couples have great difficulty in coping with their unwanted childlessness. This is apparent from, among other things, more absenteeism and more gloominess. The FIOM has excellent expertise to help these people efficiently and effectively. It is extremely inefficient to let this accumulated expertise disappear and people fall back on unspecialized care. This care will be less effective because the average professional in this field has too little expertise in the complexity of the grieving process in case of unwanted childlessness.
As a POINT network, we strongly advise the minister to reconsider the intended decision to drastically cut back on the use of FIOM for people with unwanted childlessness.
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Board Freya, association for people with fertility problems:
If your wish to have children is not fulfilled, it is a sadness that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. You go through a grieving process similar to grieving the loss of a loved one. People sometimes need professional help to get through this grieving process.
The FIOM has been offering this help for many years and as a result they have built up a lot of knowledge on this specific subject. This is important, because not every social worker and therapist understands how drastic unwanted childlessness is and they are therefore unable to provide the right guidance. Due to budget cuts, the knowledge accumulated at FIOM is in danger of being lost!
Freya thinks this cutback is a short-sighted decision, because due to the lack of the right assistance, the problems for these people can pile up and result in long-term loss from the labor process with all the (including financial and emotional) consequences that entails and/or have to rely on other and possibly more medical and psychological assistance.
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Prof. dr. dr. René van Hoksbergen, Emeritus Professor of Adoption
Editorial Podium Trouw
Soest, September 2, 2012
Unreasonable cut in the FIOM
Like many institutions in care and assistance, the 'Stichting Ambulante FIOM in pregnancy, adoption and descent', founded in 1930, has been confronted with a significant cutback. In essence, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will reduce the total FIOM budget from €5,253,000 to €2 million over the next two years. De facto this means the closure of most of the nine FIOM fortresses scattered across the country and the disappearance of a large part of its aid.
The FIOM is the only specialized institution where people can go with questions and problems regarding unintended pregnancy, adoption and descent, so with very intimate and complicated life questions. The organization provides assistance to unwanted and unintentional pregnant women and their relatives, with pregnancy problems related to incest, to unwanted childless couples, to adoptees and to people who want guidance before, during or after the adoption of a child. It informs other organizations and organizes courses for the entire adoption field.
Does FIOM assistance involve many people? Exact national figures on the number of unwanted pregnancies are not known. However, the FIOM does receive requests for help every year with approximately 3,500 unintended pregnancies, it guides more than 100 women who are considering giving up their child and another 400 women who have to process an abortion. The FIOM website is increasingly used by all these women for advice and help. One in six couples has problems with fertility, so tens of thousands of people every year; every year 40 to 50 children are still given up for adoption and about 600 children are adopted from abroad. In 2012, there are more than 20,000 adult adoptees from abroad, and another nearly 20,000 adoptees born in the Netherlands.
Adoptees can struggle with their background throughout their lives. The total number of people who have ever given up a child, plus the number of adoptees and adoptive parents and others directly involved, runs into the hundreds of thousands.
Conclusion: the number of potential help-seekers is still very large. The FIOM is indispensable to them.
Something has changed in the background of unwanted pregnant women. More and more immigrant women are knocking on the door of the FIOM. Their request for help is complex. Aspects such as secrecy and taboo are even more important for them, because of the high risk of reactions such as honor killings, assault, isolation and expulsion. Within the native Dutch population, however, the taboo to communicate about unmarried motherhood, unwanted childlessness, abortion and other intimate family topics has been greatly reduced. Within many immigrant groups, this openness does not yet exist at all and, in my opinion, will remain so for many decades to come.
All this requires specific knowledge and approach. This knowledge exists at the Fiom. It is a specialized care institution aimed at these target groups.
All of a sudden it's about the latter. The minister has decided that she 'does not advocate a specific target group policy in the current policy'. However, such a policy change is not based on study and research. Not even on an independent body analysis of the consequences of such a policy change. The minister believes, for example, that the general practitioner and regular care have sufficient options and knowledge. An opinion that is not substantiated. The FIOM knows that intimate problems such as whether or not to have an abortion, for example, are often not discussed with the GP, usually the GP of the pregnant woman's parents. It should be noted that GPs often refer to the FIOM themselves. Existing abortion clinics have fully aligned their policies with the FIOM. GPs,
The FIOM has more than proven itself over time. Its specialized approach often avoids having to rely on long-term psychological or psychiatric help. Help that is much more precious.
Is there no cost savings at all? In the coming months, the ministry could study what is possible together with the FIOM. Perhaps the institution can generate more income from its activities? Perhaps a certain limitation of face-to-face contacts is possible.
In short, let the ministry reconsider its policy and bear in mind that such an approach is in fact not a cutback, but a transfer of costs to other institutions. Because this involves a multitude of institutions, the employees will not be able to build up sufficient expertise. The range of people seeking help is too small for that. The failed policy of 'adoption attention officers' at the then 50 RIAGGS should serve as a warning against fragmentation of knowledge and expertise.
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Linda Sprado, author of 'Looking for my father':
I learned from the press and Fiom that as of 1 January 2013, the subsidy to Fiom will be cut considerably. This means that she can no longer provide psychosocial help in cases where it is so badly needed. I find this incomprehensible!
As a KID child (born via artificial insemination with the help of a donor) and as the author of the book “In search of my father”, in which the experiences of donor children are bundled, I know how important it is that people can receive help and support when they go in search of their biological father and/or half-siblings. I know better than anyone that you have a lot of questions about your origins and that you can struggle with them quite a bit. It is nice if you can turn to care providers who are specialized in the field of parentage questions, but who also offer help in looking for relatives.
Fiom is committed to openness and access to parentage data for donor children and that is extremely important. It is a right for children to know where they are descended from and it is a duty for the government to ensure that the Fiom can continue to support these people. It is quite something if you daily wonder who your father is, you have questions about your own identity. And it certainly has as big an impact on your life as finding a relative. It turns your world upside down.
Fiom can then help you make the first contact. They clarify in advance what the expectations are and supervise the first meeting, so that you are not alone.
In short: a cry for help to national politicians to continue the subsidy to Fiom!
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Various adoption-related organizations showing their support for us:
UAI, United Adoptees International, Association of Adult Adoptees
SIG, the foundation Interlandelijk Adoptees, association of adult adoptees
ADOC, Knowledge Center for Adoption and Foster Care
Wereldkinderen, license holder
The Dutch Adoption Foundation (NAS), license holder
Africa Foundation, license holder
YaYa Foundation: Your adoption Your ambition, adult adoptees
Arierang, Association of Korean Adoptees
Los Hijos Foundation, roots organization
Roots Ethiopia
LAVA, adoptive parent association
dr. Anneke Vinke
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