Train the Trainer Registration is now available! Click here to learn more.
Train the Trainer Registration is now available! Click here to learn more.
ASCC stands for Adoption-Sensitive Clinical Care.
The ASCC project offers a curriculum designed to increase hospital-based staff knowledge and confidence in sharing adoption as an option and providing adoption-sensitive care when working with expectant parents facing an unplanned pregnancy.
ASCC is a partnership between the National Council For Adoption, Spaulding for Children, the Adoption and Foster Care Clinic, and the University of Washington and funded by a grant from the Children’s Bureau.
The ASCC core curriculum and supplemental modules are publicly available at no charge for anyone interested in learning more about adoption in the healthcare setting. However, the trainings are geared specifically toward hospital-based staff.
Yes, participants can choose to receive CMEs or Social Work CEs for course completion.
No, the CE/CME credits provided for the ASCC core curriculum and supplemental modules are provided FREE of cost for the duration of the project period!
The ASCC training is offered asynchronously through ASCC’s online Training Portal. In addition, the ASCC Project Team is offering virtual Train-the-Trainer sessions in order to equip local trainers with the knowledge and skills to deliver the training to hospital-based staff both in person and virtually, live and self-paced. More information is available on both of those options on the Online Training page and the Train-the-Trainer page.
Research conducted by the National Council For Adoption shows that birth parent satisfaction with the decision to place for adoption has increased over time, while at the same time stigma associated with birth parents and adoption has also increased.
Additionally, while 18% of birth mothers and 15% of birth fathers reported receiving support from healthcare workers regarding their adoption decisions, more than 30% of birth parents surveyed reported healthcare workers as a source of stigma about adoption.
Hospital-based staff are in a unique position to provide crucial levels of support to expectant parents facing unintended pregnancies. For those parents that decide to place for adoption, the research shows that non-coerced decision-making and receipt of accurate information were two significant predictors of birth parent adoption satisfaction levels. When hospital-based staff are informed about the basics of adoption and how to present adoption as an option in a non-judgmental, non-directive manner, they are better able to serve their patients facing unplanned pregnancies.
Interested individuals who feel they may be qualified to be a UIA 7 trainer can register for a Train-the-Trainer session here. The project team will review submitted resumes and will confirm with those who have been selected as trainers and have met the minimum requirements to attend the train-the-trainer sessions.
The ASCC project team will perform two different TTT processes: one for experienced UIA trainers who know and have trained the UIA curriculum, and another for trainers who are new to the UIA curriculum.
In healthcare, preparedness is paramount, regardless of volume. Just as clinicians train for rare diseases or low-frequency emergencies, adoption-competent care ensures you are ready for every patient who walks through the door.
The goal is to provide high-quality, sensitive care before a situation arises, rather than learning from mistakes made during a live patient encounter. This training provides foundational information and skills to handle these cases with the accuracy and care they deserve. It also is founded on principles of ethical, trauma-informed patient care and non-coercive communication, all of which are universal priorities that improve care across the entire hospital system and transfer to other areas of patient care.
Low volume does not mean low importance. Like rare diseases or codes, low frequency situations require more deliberate training because staff don’t get “on-the-job” practice.
Adoption is a lifelong journey that touches many individuals beyond the immediate “placement” event. Your hospital is likely already serving members of the adoption community, which may include:
Understanding the unique perspectives and potential trauma history of these individuals ensures more empathetic and effective care for a significant portion of your existing patient population.
Yes. While often associated with Labor & Delivery, historical data shows that healthcare providers who have taken this training include 100,000+ providers from a wide range of settings, including Emergency Departments, Primary Care, and Mental Health services. The core principles of the curriculum are designed to be applied wherever members of the adoption constellation, expectant and birth parents in particular, seek care.
Yes. Our curriculum touches on Safe Haven policies (also known as Safe Surrender laws). These laws allow a parent to remain anonymous and be shielded from prosecution for abandonment when they leave an unharmed infant in a designated safe location, such as a hospital. Because Safe Haven Laws vary, we describe them in more detail in the ASCC State Adoption Guides.
While the core training provides a national framework, we understand that adoption laws vary significantly across state borders. To ensure your team is aware of local regulations, we offer ASCC State Adoption Guides for all 50 states and the District of Columbia that provide:
You can access our library of state-specific guides directly on the ASCC website. If you have a unique legal question or need a deeper dive into a specific state’s policies, our team is available to connect with you and provide additional resources.
ASCC training can be accessed for free through our Training Portal here. Create an account to log in and get started.
No formal certification is required from the ASCC team. If you have completed the online modules, reviewed the updated resources, and feel confident in the material, you are fully authorized to engage with your local community and healthcare professionals.
Yes. While not a requirement, the ASCC team wants to ensure you feel fully confident and prepared. We offer two primary ways to access this training:
To schedule a session, please email: ASCC@adoptioncouncil.org
You do not need our permission to act as an advocate in your community. However, we would love to hear from you! Sharing your experiences—what worked, how you approached the hospital, and the feedback you received—helps us improve our resources and guidance for everyone.
Email the ASCC team at ASCC@adoptioncouncil.org.
To ensure a professional and impactful presentation, we recommend the following steps:
The training is designed to save time, avoid costly procedural and emotional mistakes, and reduce stress in the long run. By taking the time to learn about adoption, staff can:
Emphasize that goal is for healthcare staff to provide high-quality, sensitive care before a situation arises, rather than learning from mistakes made during a live patient encounter. This training provides foundational information and skills for hospital-based staff to handle these cases with the accuracy and care they deserve. It also is founded on principles of ethical, trauma-informed patient care and non-coercive communication, all of which are universal priorities that improve care across the entire hospital system and transferable to other areas of patient care.
Provide a gentle reminder that low volume does not mean low importance. Like rare diseases or codes, low frequency situations require more deliberate training because staff don’t get “on-the-job” practice.
Sensitivity training begins with relationship-building. Before we can shift clinical behavior, we must build trust with the hospital staff. When there is a foundational relationship between the training provider and the clinical team, staff are more receptive to learning and more likely to adopt the heart-centered approach required for adoption-competent care.
Healthcare workers, like anyone else, may hold biases that they may or may not be aware of based on their experiences, beliefs, background, and values. This can include their views on adoption, which may be positive or negative. When left unchecked, even implicit biases can influence the treatment or counseling offered to a patient, at times leading to unintended stigma and shame.
This is compounded by the fact that most healthcare providers have received little to no formal training on presenting adoption as an option for family planning, how to handle adoption in the hospital setting, adoption-sensitive language, or the adoption process overall.
While healthcare providers enter the field with the intent to help, research shows that expectant parents often perceive hospital staff as a source of stigma. By bringing this data to light, we help clinicians realize that their potential impact can go one of two ways:
By sharing real-world examples and statistics, we bridge the gap between a provider’s “intent to help” and their “actual impact” on the patient.
Empathy building is a core component of this curriculum. We achieve this by:
Absolutely. We highly encourage you to customize the presentation materials. If you are a local expert or hospital administrator familiar with specific city or state mandates, you can integrate that information into the modules.
You can access our library of state-specific guides directly on the ASCC website. If you have a unique legal question or need a deeper dive into a specific state’s policies, our team is available to connect with you and provide additional resources.
To move from a “one-time presentation” to a permanent part of the unit’s education, you should reach out to leadership roles who oversee staff development. Key contacts include:
If you are coming from an outside organization, using professional “hospital language” helps build immediate credibility. We recommend asking if you can provide materials or a presentation for the following established educational forums:
This curriculum is built on a long-standing foundation of clinical education. Since its inception in 2001, we have reached over 70,000 healthcare providers and social workers across various clinical settings. Given the ongoing nature of our work, we estimate that nearly 100,000 providers have engaged with these materials to improve their patient care standards over the years.
The current iteration of our training is seeing strong, active participation. To date:
Healthcare is a dynamic field with significant staff turnover and evolving best practices. Continuous training is necessary for:
The most effective way to manage high turnover and varied shifts (such as weekend or night staff) is to incorporate the modules into the hospital’s formal onboarding curricula. By making adoption competency a standard part of the orientation process for any nurse or clinician joining the unit, you ensure that no staff member, regardless of when they started or what shift they work, misses this vital information.
“Unit-specific onboarding” is just as important as “new hire onboarding.” Even if an employee has been with the hospital for years, the nuances of adoption-competent care are specific to departments like L&D, Pediatrics, and Social Work. We recommend that this training be included in onboarding for all internal transfers.
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