Interview with Christine Mueller Dechert

What this episode covers

Please join me as I speak with Oregon adoptee Christine Dechert. Christine participated in the advocacy movement that resulted in Oregon becoming one of only ten states in the US to have truly unrestricted access for adoptees to their original birth certificates. Christines family history is complex, as her mother was also adopted. While Oregons laws now allow adoptees to receive OBCs, the state of Montana, where Christines mother was born does not allow unrestricted access to adoptee documents.  Mentioned in the podcast: Oregon and Montana adoptee access to records laws: for a good review of the laws, visit adopteerightslaw.com.  Adoption Triad: a term used to represent the three aspects of adoption; the families of origin, the adoptee and the adoptive parents.  Reactive Attachment Disorder(RAD)* Reactive Attachment Disorder is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a condition characterized by "grossly abnormal attachment behaviors in early childhood, occurring in the context of grossly inadequate child care. There are many ways that the attachment issues can be expressed. The disorders diagnosis is pretty controversial when applied to adoptees.  *This is just my opinion, but I believe it is often used to invalidate the trauma inherent in relinquishment by making the adoptee the "identified patient" and allow adoptive parents and our culture to avoid identifying the problems caused by erasing a persons identity and ignoring their grief. I believe that any time we hear the label of RAD being used to describe an adopted person, by non-adopted and non-adoption trauma informed individuals, we should immediately treat that label as highly suspicious.

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