Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Blog Due November 17th

My Blog this week is on a concept I learned in psychology class.  It is called Reactive Attachment Disorder.
I feel this is an important subject because it is an issue that continues to happen, there are orphans from other countries who have very little contact or affection from orphanage workers.  This takes a toll on the child's biological, emotional, and social well being, if this goes untreated this can be a disorder they deal with through adulthood.  I have seen this issue at work, My employer participates in a program called Kid Save in which families from the United States take in orphan children from the Ukraine.  The primary goal of this program is to find families to adopt these children.  Usually the host family is very much interested in adopting these children or they know of someone who may be interested.  The children are lent to believe that this is a first vacation for them, they do not want the children to become attached to these families or pressured by potential families.  From my experience in meeting these children and providing free dental care for them, you can quickly see how unattached they are to the people around them, this is an adventure to them and nothing more.  It is so sad because some children do not make a connection with their host, because of this they are sent back without another chance to meet another family.  These children do not know what opportunity's they have while they are in America, nor do they understand what a truly great life they can lead with loving families.  Some of the younger children adopted have adapted well, it's taken time but they have adjusted.  One of the obstacles they've had to deal with are teaching the children to be cautious/fearful of unfamiliar surroundings or people.  With their past experiences they were transferred from orphanage to orphanage and were constantly around different care givers, they were never taught about the dangers of the outside world, it didn't pertain to them.  Many of these children if not adopted by age 14, will be out on their own with no knowledge of how to live a normal life, or how to survive without turning to predators for help.  There are so many children in orphanages, there's not enough people to work in them and there is not enough orphanages to house these children.  Unfortunately as well the care givers are uneducated and try to deter the children from making connections with hopeful families, this is a situation that I don't see changing in the near future.  I hope someone with influence can see this tragic epidemic and protect these innocent children.

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