FTA SURVEYResults

Are you a Pre or Post Adoptive Parent?

45

55

Pre AdoptivePost Adoptive

Are you a 2013-2014 FTA Member?

63

37

Membership

YesNo

REASONS GIVEN FOR NOT RENEWING MEMBERSHIP OR BECOMING A MEMBER

• Disheartened – No Light at the end of

the tunnel

• Distance – Don’t get to attend

meetings/events

• Don’t see the added benefits to

renewing membership

• Never heard of the FTA

Where did you first here about the FTA?

44

110

104

8

19Social Worker/Prep CourseAccredited AgencyCountry Specific Support GroupA FriendOur WebsiteOur Facebook PageRollercoaster.ie

Are you a regular attendees at our meetings?

27

70

YesNo

Meeting Attendance Summary of reasons given for not attending meetings

• Distance

• Now Post Adoption

• Too early in the process

• Too long in the process

• Meetings more aimed at Post Adoption

than Pre Adoption

• Didn’t know about the meetings

• Other Commitments

• Too depressing

What would be your preferred night for our monthly meeting?

7 3

31

8

15

13

1

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday

Are you happy with the current structure of the meetings?

53

7

Meeting Structure

YesNo

COMMENTS:

• As well as country updates could there be

breakout sessions on different countries

• It’s a shames the meetings are not being

supported and people are not standing

together as one voice!

• Talks are too long and not interactive enough

• Meetings rarely run on schedule

• More focus on what's happening now. Good

news stories are Pre Hague

Would you like us to look at alternating our monthly meetings with more social events (Adoption Movie Night, Cultural

Nights, Workshop Evenings)

58

20

YesNo

SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS:

• Post Adoption workshops

• Social gatherings to Fota/Fitzgerald’s

Park etc

• Weekend Workshops, leave the

meetings as they are.

• Adoption Movies/Cultural Evenings

could just make a long process harder

Please rank from 1-4 the speaker that would be of most interest to you?

24

2635

15Adoptive Parent Recently HomeRepresentative of the HSE/AAISpeaker on Post Adoptive IssuesRepresentative from Accredited Agencies

Are there any particular topics you would like us to cover?

Declaration Extension to 4 years Teenage issues that arise with adopted children What to expect Post Declaration – Pre Adoption Regular updates from AAI on their work to put procedures in place with other countries The way we are made to feel during the adoption process False hope, lack of transparency Long Term Fostering & Domestic Adoption Implementation of Hague How to proceed in other countries Dealing with difficult behaviour Talking to your child about adoption Lack of progress since 2010 – What is being done by agencies and government Political Lobbying – What are the FTA doing? Return to Homeland Meeting for Playschool/Primary Teachers on what they need to look out for. Special Needs Attachment Parenting Specialist who has worked with children born as a result of incest/rape and where drug taking was an

issue as this was not covered adequately in Prep Course

Have you any other comments for the FTA committee?

We had many, many messages of support and thanks.

Lots of positive feedback on our communication and interaction via Facebook and Email

Additional Notes

It was interesting to note throughout the survey that some PAPs feel there is too much

emphasis on Post Adoption in our meetings and some APs feel there is not enough emphasis

on Post Adoption. We aim to cover both topics equally but it has to be noted that our Post

Adoption meetings, most recently the HSE Speech and Language Therapist, are not being well

attended. As there are no Post Adoption Services provided outside Dublin, these meetings are

people’s opportunity to talk to experts. Please take the opportunity if you can at all.

There were a lot of comments saying that people did not know about meetings or hadn’t been

invited to meetings. Our meetings are open to members and non members, there are no

invitations required. Details of our meetings are emailed to members and are also posted on

Facebook, Rollercoaster, Magic Mum and our website www.familiesthroughadoption.com

twice in the run up to the meeting. So check out any of these outlets or send us an email at

familiesthroughadoption@gmail.com and we will be happy to sent you the details

From the FTA Committee

Thank you everyone for all the messages of support and thanks. As most people will know, we are a voluntary group and our committee is made up of people who work full time jobs as well as the work that goes into keeping the FTA going. We are committed to supporting both Pre and Post Adoptive families and it is not easy in the current climate so thank you for acknowledging this.

We had 103 responses to our survey and we thank each and every one of you who took the time to complete it. Your feedback will help us greatly going forward. Thank You.