Examining the facilitators and barriers faced by adoptive professionals delivering post-placement services

Most studies focusing on the delivery of post-adoption services and resources have focused on adoptive parents' perceptions and feelings. However, the experiences of adoption professionals have been largely left out of this discussion. This pilot study attempted to close this gap by asking a sample of adoption professionals to describe the barriers that hinder adoptive families from accessing post-placement treatment and support services, and how these can be overcome. Participants rated the responses to each question on its importance, and how well they thought adoption professionals had addressed it. Concept mapping, a mixed-method approach, was used to analyze participants' responses. Scaled data were analyzed to test for statistically significant differences between the importance of each statement and how well adoption professional had addressed them. The differences between all aggregate ratings were statistically significant, illustrating the great need for adoption professionals to better work with adoptive families to improve service accessibility. Thematic analyses indicated that most barriers were at the macro-level, and that macro level barriers were worse addressed than micro-level barriers. The study identified new barriers such as "appearance of perfection" and new dimensions of worker discontinuity and service inequity barriers. Implications for the field and further research are discussed.