Help is sought by children adopted from outside Ireland

ONE of the country’s leading children’s charities is struggling to provide counselling to families with children adopted from abroad who are beginning to ask questions about their identity.

A total of 4,792 children have been adopted into Ireland since the introduction of the Foreign Adoption Act in 1991.

The majority initially came from Romania but were later joined by children from countries such as Russia, Guatemala, China, Thailand, Belarus and India.

Barnardos Post Adoptive Unit is the only specifically funded service in the country and offers counselling and support to children and their adoptive parents, as well as mediation services to children who are preparing to meet their birth parents. However, the service only covers Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

Unit leader Christine Hennessey said the majority of her clients were parents of children who were now becoming teenagers and asking questions about their identity.

Ms Hennessey said the unit had taken 500 calls to its helpline alone this year, while waiting lists for assessments were up to four months. This year the unit has carried out 270 counselling sessions with parents, most of whom have teenage children, while 10 children are involved in sessional work.

She said: ‘We got funding in 2008 but our funding has been cut every year since then along with every other service.

‘It’s hard to manage our list. I try not to let it go beyond three to four months. There are only two of us here and it’s creeping above that now.

‘The next sending country will be Bulgaria. The system needs to be prepared for those children because these early intervention services saves money in the long run.’