Successful Adoption for Disabled Children or Children with Mental Health Conditions: A Systematic Review

Abstract

There is limited research in achieving successful permanence for adoption placements involving children with disabilities or mental health conditions. This systematic review aims to identify existing research findings and enable stakeholders to provide effective support to disabled children in adoptive placements. A research question and inclusion/exclusion criteria were identified to develop the search strategy. Of the 678 potential articles initially identified seven were considered relevant for the study. Results evidenced that disabled children require effective interventions from adopters to support early development skills, which may prevent future placement breakdowns. Adopters require support in various forms, which can be partially met through training. Organisations need policies that support collaborative working and organisational development to ensure staff are able to provide support to adoptive placements. Effective collaboration between all parties and an effective matching process play a part in successful placements. The findings can be used to inform future research in the provision of support to specific categories of disabilities. A gap in research was identified in some areas of the adoption system such as birth parents’ contribution to successful adoptive placements or specialist research into children with specific disabilities, such as hearing or visual impairments.