TIES for Families

Training, Intervention, Education, and Services for Families

Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, Department of Pediatrics

OUR SERVICES

Support to Resource Families:

UCLA TIES provides services to resource families prior to the adoptive placement, during the transition of children from foster care to adoption, and following placement and adoption finalization. The array of services include the following:

Support Group
Support Group
Preparation of resource parents: In addition to the standard education already provided by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), resource families voluntarily attend nine hours of additional training specifically geared to the challenges of parenting and providing permanency to children with special needs, focusing on the issues involving prenatal substance exposure and other biological vulnerabilities, multiple placements, and abuse and neglect.  Some of the topics covered are building empathy for substance abusing biological parents; learning what is known and not known about the impact of prenatal substance exposure and coming to terms with the uncertainties; learning strategies to work with the child’s challenging behaviors; reflecting on the pros and cons of resource parents disclosing the child’s history; learning to build in substance abuse prevention strategies for the child; and evaluating factors related to maintaining contact with the child’s birth family when there is a history of substance abuse.  These sessions are guided by the principles, confirmed consistently by adoption research, that thorough education helps resource  parents make informed decisions, and that the better the preparation, the more satisfied parents are with the adoption.

Services prior to adoptive placement:

  • UCLA TIES Interdisciplinary Team Consultation
    Some children waiting for adoptive parents receive some combination of health, mental health, and educational assessments and/or treatment. Information is utilized to inform Adoption Workers and resource parents about what is necessary in order to attend to the child’s needs and assist with the transition from foster care to adoption.

Services during the transition:

  • Individual Consultation on Children:
    Multi-disciplinary review of records by pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and educational consultants and meetings with future adoptive parents help them understand possible consequences of strengths and vulnerabilities identified in the child as well as the recommendations for, and referrals to, needed services.
  • Transition Services:
    Counseling sessions inform the resource parent(s) about the child’s development and   temperament; promote attachment by addressing parent-child interactions and behavioral issues through an understanding of attachment and loss issues; and provide training in temperament-specific parent interventions.  Individual child psychotherapy is available when appropriate.
  • Support Groups:
    Resource families who have recently had a child placed with them or anticipate a placement shortly are invited to attend monthly support groups with experienced adoptive parents, facilitated by psychologists and social workers. Children participate in parallel child support groups.

Services following placement:

  • Consultation:
    • Pediatric consultation
    • Educational consultation and advocacy
    • Psychiatric consultation on genetics of mental illness and psychiatric histories  of children with special needs
  • Assessment:
    • Developmental assessment
    • Psychological testing for cognitive, academic, social and emotional functioning
    • Psychiatric evaluations for diagnosis and medication
    • Speech/language evaluations
    • Temperament assessments
  • Interventions:
    • Play Therapy for young children
    • Parent-Child Interactive Conjoint Therapy
    • Family counseling
    • Ongoing monthly support groups for parents and for children
    • Parent psychoeducation  
    • Mentoring
    • Psychiatric Medication Management Clinic
    • Infant Mental Health program offering home visiting, developmental evaluation, and parenting education, and monthly support groups for Parent-Infant Adoption
    • Specialty Programs:
      • Kidsave
      • Teen Process Group-- conducted concurrently with parent group to  address issues related to adoption, identity development, birth families, placement histories
      • Incredible Years--weekly behavior management groups for parents and young children
      • Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Treatment