Adoptee Health Network
Empowering Adoptees, Educating Clinicians, Improving Healthcare
About Us
The Adoptee Health Network (AHN) is an online resource focused on providing support and resources to adopted patients, their families, and the healthcare professionals that care for them. Our goal is to bridge knowledge gaps by providing a central hub of essential resources that help both adoptees and clinicians navigate the unique challenges related to medical care for adoptees and/or in the absence of comprehensive family medical histories. While far from complete, we hope to eventually grow the Adoptee Health Network into both a comprehensive resource and vibrant community of adoptees and clinicians. Through advocacy and education, we strive to support adopted patients and clinicians alike for better health outcomes and experiences for all.​
Why Adoptee Health?
Most physicians receive no training on adopted patients.
Primary care physicians receive almost no training on the care of adopted patients. Among those who did report some training, this was limited to pediatric patients. Although small, this study oversampled physicians that reported personal connections to adoption and folks with limited family medical history.
Adoptees are 3.7 times more likely to attempt suicide.
However, primary care physicians often under-recognize mental health problems among adoptees and are often unaware of the importance of referring to adoption-competent mental healthcare and resources in their communities.
Adopted patients are more likely to delay care or change providers with non-adoption competent providers.
A recent survey of 203 adult adoptees found that adopted patients believed that adoption and limited family medical history significantly affected their healthcare experiences, that providers knew little about adoption, and this could impact their relationship with their provider. They were found to be 6 times more likely to report delaying care or changing providers when met with providers lacking adoption-competency.
Our Goals
Empower Adoptees
Adopted patients have unique experiences as patients. While healthcare and medicine must recognize and address unique needs of their patients that impact clinical encounters and outcomes, we also work to educate and empower adoptees to advocate for their needs as patients.
Educate Professionals
We know that clinicians want to provide the best care possible for their patients, but are limited by scant awareness, training, guidelines and other resources for clinicians. We work to provide educational resources to address clinician knowledge gaps around adopted patients with limited family medical history.
Improve Healthcare Experiences
Ultimately, we hope to improve healthcare experiences for adopted patients. Going to the doctor is already stressful for a myriad of reasons and feeling unseen, overlooked, and unheard in the office due to adoption identity or limited family medical history should not occur.
What We Do
Organize Resources
Advocacy, organizing, and research around adoptees—often driven by adopted people themselves—is taking place around the world and in many different disciplines. We hope to compile these resources to help improve awareness, training, and outcomes.
Educational Workshops
We organize educational workshops for adoptees and clinicians. For adoptees, we seek to empower patients with the information to guide their health decisions. These sessions aim to enhance health literacy, promote informed decision-making, and foster self-advocacy among adoptees around their unique health needs.
For clinicians, we seek to address knowledge gaps around this unique patient population including how to sensitively address adoption and limited family medical history, tips to normalize family diversity, counsel on appropriate preventative screening and genetic testing, and provide resources on adoption and mental health.
Advocacy Initiatives
Through our advocacy initiatives, we work to raise awareness about the unique health needs of adoptees and advocate for policies that support their well-being. We engage with policymakers, healthcare providers, and the public to promote inclusivity, equality, and improved healthcare outcomes for adoptees.