Support Services during times of stress, needs and challenges
Building a family through adoption or subsidized guardianship can present many unique challenges. Adoptive families may experience issues that differ from biologically created families in significant ways. Children served through the Adoption & Guardianship Preservation program often experience significant emotional or behavioral issues including chronic lying, stealing, aggression, eating, or sleeping disturbances, fire-setting, sexual acting out, and attachment difficulties. Children may also be experiencing loss, grief, and/or separation issues and in some cases may present with medical, organic, or neurological disabilities like Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, mood disorders, attachment disorders, and other psychiatric diagnoses. Frequently these children also experience adjustment issues related to adoption or guardianship.
Services may include intensive family or individual therapy, attachment therapy, art or play therapy, respite, support groups, case management, advocacy, and crisis intervention. Acute issues may result in the need for intensive services to reduce the risk of out of home placement and to increase family stability. A variety of strengths-based and trauma informed therapeutic interventions are used, which allows Adoption Preservation the flexibility to effectively meet the needs of the families and children it serves. Cash assistance is also available on a limited basis to assist families that face economic hardships that jeopardize the placement or to purchase specialized services for which no other resources are available.
Children’s Home & Aid Adoption and Guardianship Preservation services are available to families with children under the age of 18 who have been adopted or for whom guardianship has been awarded through DCFS. The family is never charged a fee for these services. The Adoption and Guardianship Preservation Program is offered in the Northern and Southern Regions.
