This Open Access book presents unique evidence from the first comprehensive study of the
outcomes of open adoption from care in Australia. It contributes to the international debate
concerning the advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face post adoption contact with birth
families. The chapters assess whether adoption provides a better chance of permanence and more
positive outcomes than long-term foster care for abused and neglected children in care who
cannot safely return to their birth families. They also explore whether open adoption can avoid
some of the detrimental consequences of past policies in which adoption was shrouded in secrecy
and children frequently grew up with a conflicted sense of identity. The book will appeal to
policy makers practitioners and students of social policy social work the law psychology
and psychiatry. It should also be of interest to adult adoptees and adoptive parents whose
experiences it reflects.
