Historic forced adoption - scoping study: research findings

Next steps

The next steps for the Scottish Government are to consider how to ensure the support needs of people affected by historic forced adoption are met. Key issues include:

• Ensuring that people have adequate support during search and reunion activities, especially emotional support.
• Supporting people to access and understand their records, again including emotional support.
• Enhancing the services available to help people with the emotional, psychological and mental health impact of historic forced adoption.
• Developing training for key professionals such as GPs and mental health workers to raise their understanding of the impact of historic forced adoption so they can support and signpost people more effectively.
• Monitoring and evaluating the peer support service recently launched by Health in Mind.

When considering next steps, the findings suggest it may be beneficial to engage with people who have lived experience of historic forced adoption to identify priorities and formulate action plans.