How Adoptive Foster Families Can Get Mentors in Los Angeles County

Overview
Adoptive foster families in Los Angeles County, including relative caregivers, have a mentoring support service available to receive feedback from veteran adoptive families and find needed therapeutic resources.

Adoption Promotion and Support Services (APSS)
In LA County, several agencies collaborate with the post-adoption department of the Department of Children and Family Services to mentor through Adoption Promotion and Support Services (APSS).

The program is funded through a grant to connect experienced adoptive families with other families who have also adopted out of the foster care system.

Services include case management, or coordinating services, linkage to therapy and other community resources, support groups, and mentors.

Adoptive parents are recruited as mentors to develop relationships with adoptive families to promote permanency for the children in their care and mentor new foster/adoptive parents during all stages of the adoption process.
Mentors may also be assigned to a child, where recruitment efforts are underway, whose plan is Long-Term Foster Care (LTFC), but could benefit from a more permanent plan of adoption, or is hesitant about adoption.

What Mentors Do
My wife and I became adoptive mentors through the agency Children's Bureau to share some of our knowledge gained through nearly 20 years of foster care and adoption. We went through a brief interview process with Children's Bureau, had 40 hours of training, background checks and then were assigned our cases.

My wife has mentored single mothers and married couples while I've mentored three grandmothers, a husband and wife and a single adoptive dad. The children they parent range from 11-years-old to 16-years-old.

Mentoring is done primarily over the phone but we have done occasional in-person dinners and visits. My wife has attended school meetings with her mentees to discuss school-based solutions and she helped one family through the process of placing a child in out-of-state residential treatment.

Adoptive mentors receive an hourly rate for helping, have two hours of on-going training per month, and consult with their clients at least twice per month. Mentors also have the opportunity to share resources with each other to help their clients.

The Value of an Adoptive Mentor
A mentor offers a peer relationship to an adoptive family needing support.
A letter from an adoptive family shows why mentoring is valuable. Children's Bureau has an actual letter from a couple who originally adopted a child at three months of age. But by the time he reached grade school, there were signs of mental illness developing:

"We marked the changes in his behavior from 2nd grade when he became intimidated during a benchmark reading exam. From that point, things went down or up depending on how you look at it.

"Things escalated to the point of hospitalization due to self injurious behavior.

"He was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder, ADHD & Fetal Alcohol Syndrome medicated and sent home."

When the family was first assigned a mentor, they didn't respond to phone messages or emails because they felt they were "drowning" with the care of their son; they decided no one could give them any effective help.

The family was having trouble with the school providing their son with the Special Education services he needed. They finally contacted their mentor who encouraged them and gave them on-going practical advice.

"My mentor coached me through every step, even when it was time to hire an Advocate. Our son is now receiving services needed with our support at every step."

How to get a mentor - APSS
In Los Angeles County, families get a mentor by calling the county's post-adoption services department or visiting the DCFS Web site. The county then directs them to an agency like Children's Bureau, one of the agencies working closely with DCFS.

Families who are in the adoption process may also request a mentor by talking to the workers handling their child's case.

Visit the Web site for Los Angeles County Post Adoption Services and the APSS Program