Class

Open Adoption 101: What To Consider, How To Establish And Ways To Stay Connected


Description

Open adoption can be a scary and difficult relationship to understand. This course will explain open adoption, will help you to understand the expectant parent and birth parent perspectives and will offer some strategies for making openness part of your every day life.


This class will help prospective adoptive parents:

  • Understand the different degrees of openness
  • Become familiar with the process of creating an open adoption
  • Make openness work for them
  • Learn to maintain connections with birth families


Credit Hours: 2.0

Content
  • Introduction
  • Navigating Through the Class
  • Welcome
  • Lesson One: What Is Openness?
  • Questions About Open Adoption
  • Definition
  • Kinds of Openness
  • Video: What We Tell Him
  • Openness Spectrum
  • Benefits of Open Adoption
  • Video: Why I Love Her
  • Adoptive Parent Story: Finding Peace of Mind
  • Activity: What is Openness?
  • Video: Communicating Openness
  • Lesson Two: Becoming Comfortable With Openness
  • Becoming Comfortable With Openness
  • Video: Visualization
  • Reflection
  • Video: What's Best for the Child
  • Adoptive Parents Speak
  • Birth Mothers Speak
  • Video: Concerns of Birth Parents and Adopted Parents
  • Reasons for Placement
  • Understanding Birth Fathers
  • Video: A Walk In Their Shoes
  • Understanding the Birth Parents
  • Adoptive Parent Story: Honesty Is the Best Policy
  • Activity: Are They Ready for Open Adoption?
  • Lesson 2 Conclusion
  • Lesson Three: Moving Into Openness
  • Moving Into Openness
  • Video: Choosing a Family
  • Unexpected Bond
  • Video: Facilitated Blind Date
  • Making a Plan
  • Video: Meeting for the First Time
  • Waiting and First Moments
  • Openness Evolves Over Time
  • Lesson Four: Making Open Adoption Work
  • Making Open Adoption Work
  • Strategies for Open Adoption
  • Strategies for Different Stages
  • Changes in Openness: Part 1
  • Video: Staying In Touch
  • Changes in Openness: Part 2
  • Activity: Open Adoption Scenarios
  • Adoptive Parent Story: The Best Decision
  • Conclusion
  • Conclusion
  • Post Test
  • Acknowledgements
Completion rules
  • All units must be completed
  • Leads to a certificate with a duration: Forever