The ASCC project makes Adoption-Sensitive Clinical Care training available through the Understanding Infant Adoption 7 (UIA 7) curriculum. Understanding Infant Adoption is a curriculum that has gone through revisions throughout the years, with different versions available as the curriculum was updated. The UIA 7 curriculum was updated in 2025 with current adoption information and guidance for healthcare professionals and adapted into a variety of additional formats to meet the current training needs of hospital-based staff.
The core UIA 7 curriculum consists of six main modules. The main module topics are included in all available training lengths (1.5 hours, 2.5 hours, 4.5 hours, 6 hours) to ensure that busy hospital-based staff can access the level of detail needed for their role. The six core modules cover:
Participants will become familiar with the adoption process and understand the legal implications of the adoption option.
Participants will learn how to differentiate personal and professional attitudes, experiences, and possible biases related to adoption so that counseling, including the adoption option, can be provided in an objective, non-biased way.
Participants will present adoption as an option objectively and without bias or judgment to patients from diverse backgrounds and make appropriate adoption service referrals.
Participants will increase sensitivity and understanding regarding common influences on expectant parent decision-making.
Participants will apply adoption best practices to the hospital setting, consider the impacts of hospital adoption policy and procedure on expectant parent patients as well as others in the adoption constellation, and reflect on areas within your current hospital adoption policy that may need to be reviewed or revised.
Participants will integrate knowledge gained in Modules 1 through 5 to better understand the expectant/birth parent experience.
In addition to the six modules that make up the core curriculum, supplemental modules are available to enhance the skills and understanding that hospital-based staff (HBS) may need to successfully support adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents.
The following are descriptions of the UIA 7 supplemental modules:
reviews how adoption is viewed historically and how it has changed over time and dispels myths related to adoption
builds on the core curriculum’s focus on private domestic infant adoption by incorporating information about intercountry adoption and adoption from foster care
provides an understanding of birth father issues and considerations
identifies causes and symptoms of compassion fatigue, techniques for self-care, and strategies to reduce vulnerability to compassion fatigue
helps prepare HBS to explore sources of ambivalence and provide comprehensive support for women facing life circumstances that further impact decision-making
equips healthcare administrators and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and implement policies and practices that are responsive to the needs of adoptees and their families
reviews the practice of open adoption so that HBS will be more prepared to educate their patients/clients and respond to basic questions about adoption as an option
explores the importance of adoptive family support after adoption is finalized and how HBS can help families get connected to this support
trains HBS to offer information and support to help people make informed decisions and direct their destinies within their unique cultural framework
reviews recommended health evaluations for a child who has been recently placed in an adoptive home and resources to help families integrate the adoptee into their family successfully
presents areas where expectant and birth parents may need guidance and support from healthcare or adoption professionals in order to help HBS understand ways they can support these parents before, during, and after delivery
enhances HBS understanding of adolescent development and strategies that are important to use when counseling adolescents
equips trainees to understand how to utilize this training for others within their hospital-based workplace in an in-person setting
equips trainees to understand how to utilize this training for others within their hospital-based workplace in a virtual setting
Learn more about the free online training options available to hospital-based staff.
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