[Amysue1112]

Maybe some of you have already seen this...I am copying/pasting from my yahoo group, so it is second hand. It is a letter someone received from their agency.

Dear Families,
The Ministry of Education met today to discuss their response to the
death of Nina Hilt, the adopted child from Russia who died in Virginia last week.
The Ministry has issued a statement calling for several changes to the regulations for foreign adoption. The recommended changes are:
1) revision of requirements for foreign prospective adoptive
candidates,
including training and preparation for bringing an adopted child into
the
family;
2) introduction of psychological testing of prospective adoptive
candidates
to verify their emotional stability before they travel to Russia to nitiate the process to adopt a child;
3) revisions of Russian adoption legislation, which could result in restricting "independent" adoption.

Our agency believes that these are reasonable and valid
recommendations. We
join other accredited agencies, NCFA and JCICS in supporting these
revisions. There is no indication at this time that any suspension of
adoptions through accredited agencies will be implemented.

I will notify you as we learn additional information about these
recommended
nd.

[vix]

This is great information, thank you for sharing it!

Now if they will just reaccredit those agencies still waiting!!!

[KGM]

I agree VX, Russia NEEDS to accredit the agencies.

Has anyone heard any news from their agencies that are still waiting for the reaccreditation certificates??
Do we know when the next wave of agencies are going to be accredited??

[Shay]

thanks for sharing!!

[kizibits]

My agency sent out information today to all PAP's informing them that they need to get a psychiatric evaluation now as part of their dossier. As a single woman I was already required to do so. The hardest part is finding a psychiatrist who will do it. Most of them don't want to be bothered with a one-or-two visit non-patient appointment. I had to call about a dozen doctors before I found one who would agree to do it. When I saw him, he commented that in his profession they are used to people coming to them with symptoms to which they can apply a diagnosis rather than coming to them to be certified as psychiatrically healthy. He wasn't sure what to do with me and after we talked about the adoption process and the psych requirement he asked me some general questions and requested that I do a urine drug screen and provide him with contact info for a couple other people he could talk to about me. I gave him the names and numbers of a couple friends.

My agency already requires that we all complete a parenting class for adoptive parents.

[goingtorussia]

I too got a letter yesterday that is requiring us to get this examination too. I've not call around as of yet but it was a challenge to get a regular Doctor to give us his license. Now we need to get the evaluation and his liscense also. I dont argue that fact that parents need to be stable but when people just throw away children in this country and I hear it on the news it makes me nuts, because they did not have to go through all of this to be a parent.
International Adoption is totally what planned parent hood is all about!!

**Karen**

[Amysue1112]

I can understand about the psychiatrist-these days, they don't do much but give meds. It is possible that they will allow a counselor/mental health counselor.psychologist to do the "testing"....they are usually the ones that do the real counseling, and give tests like the MMPI=2, which is a personality test that helps detect depression, schizophrenia etc. That seems like it would be better than just going to a psyciatrist for a one visit "opinion" on a person;s psychological status.

[goingtorussia]

A pshchologist can be used to do the write up and testing from what I read. I can't see a psychiatrist wanting to be bothered with this, aren't they the only ones that can give meds???

PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT SHOULD CONTAIN:

· If infertility exists, how each person has dealt with it

· Expectations with respect to the characteristics of the child they wish to adopt such as: gender, age, race, and health status.

· Attitude toward the child’s background and their biological family

· Myths and beliefs regarding adoption

· Preparation of the parents to inform the child about their adoption and biological parents

· If there is another child in the home (biological or adopted), their thoughts and reactions regarding the adoption

· Personality characteristics of each adoptive parent (results of the interpretation of tests)

· A statement that you are in good mental health and are emotionally stable

This report should be written by a psychologist (not a social worker or a counselor), or psychiatrist and notarized and apostilled.
At least half of this was covered with our homestudy and the classes we took, some I can't answer because we have not been on the first trip yet to be able to answer. I know nothing about the childrens family. So we will have this done by court date not our first trip.

[FLmom2]

Infertility clinics may be able to help direct you to someone who can do a psych evaluation that meet the criteria mentioned above (e.g. infertility issues, stability etc.). We looked into surrogacy and you have to have a psych eval for that, as well as the surrogate, if you work with the infertility clinic here.

[N.Gwinn]

GoingtoRussia,
I appreciate the list. As my husband and I read over it, we kept saying, "That's in our homestudy." The only thing that was not a part of the homestudy was the interpretation of the test results. To me, it seems redundant, but then lots of paperwork is.

[DebiP]

VIX- I totally agree. Our agency was one of the last to loose their accreditation and now we wait for a new....all the new things that the Russian Gov't will be requiring our agency already requires (except the psych eval and that has been being talked about for the last months). I wish we all would be accredited and get things going again.



Little frustrated can you tell

[klk88]

I just got my email from my agency saying we need to do the psych exam. At this point in the adoption process, I am willing to give up a kidney if that gets our two kids home!

[kizibits]

I have spoken to a couple single women who adopted in the last year or so and each said they had a psychologist do the letter and the judge refused to accept it and made them go to a psychiatrist in Russia to have it redone. You might want to verify with your agency that the court you will be using in your region will accept a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist. I don't know what region those ladies were in. Personally, I'm not taking that chance. There's enough else that can go wrong...

[votemom]

It does not seem to make a lot of sense to walk in to a doctor you have never met and spend 45 minutes with him so he can write up a report that you are qualified to adopt a child.

I understand the reasons behind this, but I do not see how this will accomplish anything beyond what the homestudy does.

A mental health physican needs time to get to know the psyche of a person.

Ahhhh, this is so complicated and stressful.

It's another hoop thru which we must jump, and jump we will, of course.

I already have the appointment made.

[Amysue1112]

Another issue-it seems that there may be many psyciatrists that would not be willing to say that someone is mentally fit to adopt after only a quick visit. What doctor would want his name attached if a person ends up hurting their adopted child? Seems to me they would not want to take that risk, and I don't blame them really. I guess they can run some screening tests (like I was talking about earlier).....but I just don't know if it will be that easy. I will be looking forward to hearing some people's experiences with their visits.