I founded New York Home Study Service in 1974 after my husband and I adopted our younger daughter from Vietnam. At that time, few New York agencies were
willing to do home studies for Vietnamese adoptions. I organized a small group of social workers to conduct home studies and do post placement supervision
for these adoptions at the request of the president of a local adoptive parent organization. Because my personal adoption experience was prolonged and
difficult, I developed contacts with a number of individuals and agencies throughout the country as I struggled to bring my daughter home. Melanie joined
our family in 1974. Adoptions from Vietnam continued until April 1975 when the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam.
As the adoption world changed, we broadened our scope to include studies for domestic adoptions as well as adoptions from a variety of countries. In addition,
there was a change in the adoption social workers who worked with me in this cooperative group.
In 1993, when I became aware of the intention of the U.S. to promote and then ratify the Hague International Adoption Treaty, I worked cooperatively with
other professionals and adoptive parents to attempt to develop a framework which would promote positive procedures and avoid onerous and unnecessary regulations.
Because we did not have the internet at our disposal at that time and because so many very powerful interests were working in opposition to us, we were
unsuccessful.
In the later 1990’s, it became evident to me that the Internet was becoming an indispensable tool in the adoption field. Three of us arranged to have www.nyhomestudy.com
set up. I became the coordinator of the website, receiving contacts and referring people on to the other social workers.
In 2001, the requirements for conducting home studies for international adoptions in New York State began to change. By 2003, all of us who had been conducting
international home studies as individual practitioners had to affiliate with adoption agencies in order to continue doing this work. At that time, I arranged
for us to conduct our international home studies through a New York authorized adoption agency, and the three of us who were the original members of
nyhomestudy.com, invited two additional social workers whose work we knew and respected, to join us. I am delighted that there are now five of us working
together cooperatively. We provide peer consultation for each other as well as sharing work when this becomes necessary.
I am a New York State licensed social worker, a National Association of Social Workers Diplomate in Social work, and I have been working in the social work field since 1961. I have been working in the adoption field since 1974. Currently, I conduct home studies and home study updates in Nassau County, western Suffolk County, and eastern Queens. I also do post placement visits and reports, and I provide adoption consultations.
In the past, I have run adoption workshops at local conferences, participated on adoption panels, supervised social workers for a small adoption agency, and
written articles on adoption. |
