AEGiS-06IAC: Adoption as a life plan for HIV-positive children.

6th International AIDS Conference


San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

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Adoption as a life plan for HIV-positive children.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:165 (abstract no. Th.D.128)
Gurdin P, Wiznia A, Canepa L; Leake and Watts Children's Home Inc., Yonkers, NY, USA

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate that, by means of innovative recruitment and supportive services strategies, families can be identified which will adopt HIV-positive children.

METHODS: A historical data base describing the HIV-positive children placed with foster families by Leake and Watts' pioneering AIDS specialized foster boarding home program was constructed. Longitudinal case records were extracted for 90 children placed from 1986 through 1989, by means of periodic case folder reviews. Service provision measures were correlated with outcomes (i.e., termination of natural parents' rights and adoption), controlling for the child's final HIV status and other individual and family characteristics.

RESULTS: As a result of innovative recruitment techniques, the intensive provision of supportive services to foster families, and the relatively generous monthly foster care stipend established by the State of New York, over half the HIV-positive children placed with foster families were, or are in, the process of being, adopted -- most frequently by the same family with which the child was originally placed for foster care.

CONCLUSIONS: Whenever possible, HIV-positive children (and other children with similar treatment needs, like "crack babies") should be placed with foster families rather than in an institutional or group setting, because foster family placement can lead to adoption in a majority of such cases.

Keywords: AEGIS, Adoption, Foster Home Care, HIV Seropositivity, HIV Infections, Family, Child Welfare, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Family Characteristics, Child Rearing, Child Psychology, Child Behavior Disorders, New York, Child, Human, Infant, ICA6KWDaegis,adoption,fosterhomecare,hivseropositivity,hivinfections,family,childwelfare,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,familycharacteristics,childrearing,childpsychology,childbehaviordisorders,newyork,child,human,infant,ica6

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ThD128

Copyright © 1990 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.