Children’s Authority exec urges parents to consider adoption

Carisa Lee

A management member at the Children’s Authority is urging people to consider adoption as an option.

Her appeal comes as the country has seen two incidents recently in which children suffered as a result of the circumstances in which their parents found themselves.

In the last week, little McKenzie Hope Rechier was strangled to death while a days-old baby was abandoned in a garbage bag at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Despite this, acting Adoption Manager at the Children’s Authority, Renee Neptune, said as of yesterday, there were no children waiting to be adopted.

“Right now, we don’t have a big pool of children readily available for adoption,” Neptune told Guardian Media.

Since the Authority’s inception in 2015, 83 children have been adopted and currently, there are 200 applications processing. “For this year so far, in terms of adoptions, we’ve had let’s say 15, 16 adoptions granted by the court thus far,” she said.

She said in the last seven years they have not had any failed placements and she encouraged parents to consider adoption as an option.

“We can assure them that the persons whoever the child would have been placed with, those families would have gone through our process...they can rest assured that this child will be placed in a home that is safe, caring loving a stable environment,” Neptune said.

Neptune said this process may be emotionally challenging for a parent and may require a level of selflessness but noted that the authority walks the parent through the process.

“We do provide that support for them, whereas if they need to get counselling before they make that decision...they have that time period where they can decide,” she said.

She said there are three major stakeholders involved in the adoption process—the prospective adoptive parent, the adoptee and the birth parent. And there are two primary types of adoption—open and closed.

Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological parents and the adoptive parents know each other, or the child knows the adoptive parent and involves the adoption of an identified child.

A closed adoption is a form of adoption where the biological and the adoptive family do not know each other and neither has any identifying information about the other, so there is no contact. In a closed adoption, the child is matched with a prospective adopter based on their requested child profile.

“Sometimes, it’s a mixture of both open and closed adoptions, where we get applications not just for persons to have a child placed with them but there also have families, let’s say a neighbour who has been caring for the child from birth,” she said.

There may also be other options such as family support or temporary foster care.

Neptune said if a parent feels like they cannot take care of their children anymore, they can email the authority at adoption@ttchildren.org or call 627-0748 ext. 40023-40025. If this is not possible, they can visit the Children’s Authority and request to speak with a medical social worker, doctor, or nurse.

She said action will be taken based on the urgency of the case.

“It will be referred to our emergency response team and our registry unit who will act on this matter...so children can be placed in temporary foster care or in a community residence,” she said.

She confirmed that the adoption process is lengthy but said this was to ensure that children are placed in fit homes. Neptune said there is no timeframe for the process, as each application is different.

However, she asserted that they want to encourage people to adopt and also to consider adoption for their children.

“It’s a very thorough process, so we conduct several interviews, they have to undergo psychological screening assessments, security background checks, they have to bring in documents for us ... let’s say medicals, financial documents,” she explained.

For applicants keen to adopt a child, Neptune asked that thee bear with the authority because they want to ensure the placement is not only good for the child but for the applicant (prospective adoptive parents) as well. September is also designated as Adoption and Foster Care Awareness Month and Neptune said the authority will host several awareness campaigns so the public can learn more on adoption as an option.

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