Options to adoption

Eleven Ways to do Child Welfare Right

Niels — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:03:23 -0700

Child placement

A breed of pill-popping mal-contents

Kerry — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 02:31:52 -0700

ADHD update: New data on the risks of medication
From Harvard Health Publications
Harvard

Medications — chiefly the stimulants dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate — are the only proven treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with its symptoms of distractibility, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. But the benefits of stimulants last only as long as patients continue to take them, and worries about the risks of long-term use are again in the news.

Child placement

Wife who killed minister husband seeks custody

neophyte — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:24:55 -0600

Judge allows Mary Winkler, who wants custody of 3 kids, to go on ‘Oprah’

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20723442/?GT1=10357

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The woman who killed her minister husband with a shotgun is seeking custody of her three daughters, or at least frequent visits.

Parenting

Hiding Our Identity

Kerry — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:47:46 -0600

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/26/171002.aspx

Jane Doe No More: The fight against rape

by Sara James, Dateline correspondent

Intimate relationships

Who's fault is it that Joel is in jail?

Kerry — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:23:05 -0600

Crime and Punishment: the world of wrongful convictions

Is it a crime to attack your attacker?

Is it a crime to be in love with an angry adult?

Is it a crime to lose faith in all that's Good and Right in this world?

Is an adoptee's suicide attempt proof that Adoption and abuse is far worse and more morally concerning than fetal abortion?

Below is a modern-day Adoption Nightmare, wrongfully living behind bars because an adoptee didn't know "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth".

Abuse within child placement cases

An "Us and Them" Subculture

Kerry — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:25:47 -0600

In a world where broken families are defined by death, divorce and adoption, it's easy to understand how a child sees life in terms of Us versus Them thinking and reasoning.

It's been established by social scientists that gang-activity is related to personal identification with a longing need for "family protection". In fact, more often than not, kids joining gangs are looking for a sense of family unity, and personal value. They are finding it among those who know what it's like to come from a broken or violent familiy.

According to the article, "Gang Mentality: Is recent school violence a flashback to 1970s street gangs? Or is it something more dangerous?", author Doron Taussig notes: "the city may be witnessing the birth of a new creature: a hybrid culture that combines the names and neighborhoods of local '70s gangs with the drugs, violence and nihilism of the 21st-century hip-hop world. The result is that "group identity" is becoming one more reason for young people to fight and kill one another." Further into the article, a former gang-member tries to explain the interest in gang-activity, and why people join gangs for protection. His quote reads, "This is a sad irony...It's safety, really. Every day somebody get rolled on. So if you get rolled on, you can call somebody."

Child placement

The Surprising Truth About Addiction

Kerry — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:41:09 -0600

More people quit addictions than maintain them.

By PsychologyToday.com

Change is natural. You no doubt act very differently in many areas of your life now compared with how you did when you were a teenager. Likewise, over time you will probably overcome or ameliorate certain behaviors: a short temper, crippling insecurity.

For some reason, we exempt addiction from our beliefs about change. In both popular and scientific models, addiction is seen as locking you into an inescapable pattern of behavior. Both folk wisdom, as represented by Alcoholics Anonymous, and modern neuroscience regard addiction as a virtually permanent brain disease. No matter how many years ago your uncle Joe had his last drink, he is still considered an alcoholic. The very word addict confers an identity that admits no other possibilities. It incorporates the assumption that you can't, or won't, change.

Bartender !?!

Treatment Program Dropouts

Kerry — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:24:24 -0600

Men and Women Have Different Motivations

By Buddy T http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pro/a/aa001023.htm

Men and women who remain in alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs throughout a full year have entirely different motivations for doing so, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, CA separately surveyed 317 women and 599 men who were outpatient alcohol and drug treatment programs that were abstinence based, "to identify independent predictors of length of stay and program completion." The results were surprising.

The threat of losing their jobs was a main motivator for men to complete the one-year program, while family influences were the main motivation for women to remain a full year, the study found.

The Criminal Mind

How to adopt, raise, and train a great dog.

Kerry — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:51:20 -0600

The Perfect Pooch

By The Editors of Men's Health

"Your dog will always look to you for leadership. He wants it," says Brian Kilcommons, a dog trainer and the author of My Smart Puppy. "You can't let him get the best of you." Here are three fundamental principles of assuming the alpha role:

1. Take the Pole Position

Bartender !?!

The Brain: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable

Mary — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:44:55 -0600

The Brain: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable

By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
Published: May 29, 2007

In bookstores, the science aisle generally lies well away from the self-help section, with hard reality on one set of shelves and wishful thinking on the other. But Norman Doidge’s fascinating synopsis of the current revolution in neuroscience straddles this gap: the age-old distinction between the brain and the mind is crumbling fast as the power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility.

Child abuse

Mental Health Disorders in Adults

Kerry — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:28:34 -0600

Adult Symptoms of Various Mental Health Disorders

Complete list of psychiatric disorders and the adult symptoms of mental health disorders. Also overviews of mental illness, anxiety disorders, depression, childhood psychiatric disorders and more.

Just a note of caution:

Child placement

Puppies Behind Bars

Kerry — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0600

By JAMES V. O'CONNOR

THE fact that Susan Hallett got started training guide dogs late in life is not unusual. What is unusual is that when she got her first puppy, she had not seen a dog for more than 25 years.

Ms. Hallett is one of 16 women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women here who is taking part in a program called Puppies Behind Bars, which housebreaks puppies that will go on to become guide dogs for the blind. Ms. Hallett, like most of the participants, is serving a life sentence for murder.

The Criminal Mind

Puppy Love is a baby-step

Kerry — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:14:40 -0700

from: www.slate.com

Why People Love Dogs

It's more complicated than you think.

By Jon Katz
Updated Monday, Feb. 12, 2007, at 7:17 AM ET

My friend and fellow dog lover Edie, an occupational therapist in Massachusetts, has been looking for a mate for nearly 10 years. She finally thought she'd found one in Jeff, a nice guy, generous and funny, who teaches high school. They dated for several months, and just as there was talk about a future, it occurred to Edie that Jeff hadn't really bonded with her yellow Lab, Sophie. In fact, as she thought more about it, she wasn't sure Jeff was a dog guy at all.

She confronted him about this at dinner one night, and he confessed, in some anguish, that he didn't love Sophie, didn't love dogs in general, never had.

They broke up the next week. More accurately, she dumped him. "What can I say?" Edie told me, somewhat defensively. "Sophie has been there for me, day in and day out, for years. I can't say the same of men. She's my girl, my baby. Sooner or later, it would have ended."

Intimate relationships

A perfectly great alternative for couples who want to adopt!

Kerry — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:49:42 -0700

I chose the following article because it illustrates how people can nurture others without having to adopt another woman's child. There are ways to help and be needed, without being placed on a waiting list!

Sanctuary gives disabled pets a second chance

Steve Smith founded Rolling Dog Ranch with his wife to make a difference

www.msnbc.msn.com
Updated: 12:18 p.m. ET Jan 26, 2007

Intimate relationships

Babies 'removed to meet targets'

Niels — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 05:32:45 -0700

Babies 'removed to meet targets'

By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter, BBC News

Babies are being removed from their parents so that councils can meet adoption targets, MPs have claimed.

The MPs fear a rise in the number of young children being taken into care in England and Wales is linked to pressure on councils to increase adoption rates.

Options to adoption

Adaptations made though Adoption

Kerry — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:52:58 -0700

Taken from Chosen Children: Billion Dollar Babies in America's Foster Care, Adoption & Prison Systems (Electronic Edition by Lori Carangelo)

...adoptees are overrepresented in psychotherapy, psychiatric hospitals and prisons, regardless of the age at which they had been surrendered to strangers. In No One Goes Crazy Alone, Paul Wachtel explains that family therapists believe no man is an island, so human miseries must be understood in terms of how intertwined human destinies are. Our very definitions of "homelessness," "mental illness," and "child welfare" dictate and constrain the solutions we seek.

Options to adoption