Dean's Lecture Series: Contact and Openness in Adoption
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Sydney Ideas co-presented with the Institute of Open Adoption Studies, School of Education and Social Work

Join us for a panel discussion to explore the complex issue of contact in the context of open adoption. Adoption is one of the pathways for those children and requires individuals with capacity, sensitivity, and commitment to raise children through open adoption. Part of this openness is realised through adoption related conversation and exchange of information between adoptees, their adoptive parents and their birth families, to enable a child to understand their biological/familial history and the circumstances of their adoption.

International research demonstrates that access to knowledge about their history and the circumstances of their adoption is important for children's ability to form a healthy and positive identity – including their identity as an adopted person. Supporting contact that is in the best interest of children is a pressing consideration for contemporary adoption practices in NSW.

Chaired by Associate Professor Amy Conley Wright, Director of the Institute of Open Adoption Studies at the University of Sydney

SPEAKERS:

• Professor Elsbeth Neil, Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia
• Helmut Uhlmann
• Lynne Moggach, Executive Specialist Adoption, Barnardos Australia
• Philippa Welman, Director Child Safety & Permanency, Department of Family & Community Services

Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 31 August 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/ESW_deans_lecture_series.shtml