Sydney Anglican welfare workers say they can't find families for toddlers with special needs because people don't understand their disabilities.
Sydney Diocese's adoption team is increasingly concerned about the future of twin boys with special needs who are facing the prospect of living life without an adoptive family.
Anglicare's adoption manager Jane West says two-year-old Michael and James (not their real names) "need families that will not only love them, but also have the capacity to cope with the demands of special needs parenting'.
Ms West, who is married to the rector of Woollahra parish, the Rev David West, says while some families have come forward, none have resulted in a placement due to complications in geography and circumstances. If Anglicare cannot find an adoptive family who offer permanence, the recruitment for a long-term carer will begin.
Anglicare have been searching for the right family for the past two years while the twins live in separate foster homes. It is the only non-government agency in NSW that is licensed to adopt children with physical disabilities.
The twins were born with partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, an abnormality in the brain structure that impacts their development and vision. Staff have been encouraged by the results of intensive early intervention therapies but say a lot of the difficulties in finding a family have come from a lack of understanding of their disability.
"Although we can understand the hesitancy to undertake the emotional, physical and financial commitment of raising boys like Michael and James, these boys are still reaching their developmental milestones, albeit with delays," Ms West said.
Ms West says families who have expressed interest in adopting children with special needs in the past often had larger families with school-age children and "valued family life highly'. One parent " generally the wife and mother " stayed at home to care for the children.
She said families who live up to 200km from Sydney and could embrace one or both of these boys and provide them with a loving home should call Anglicare Adoption Services on (02) 9890 6855.
