Annette Baran was a clinical social worker who, in 1978, published the book that many consider the catalyst for a movement toward open adoptions.

Baran, who challenged conventional mindsets regarding adoption, died July 11 at the age of 83,

“As time went on, she also encountered many adoptees searching for their birth mothers who were in psychological pain, said Betty Jean Litton, an adoption reform advocate… Moved to crusade for open adoption, Baran joined a novel research project started by a University of California – Los Angeles psychiatrist, Dr. Arthur Sorosky, who noticed that his patients who had been adopted tended to have identity problems.” [Source: The Los Angeles Times]

Baran’s book, The Adoption Triangle, was a result of that UCLA study, and was instrumental in shaping people’s understanding of open adoption.
 

Labels: open_adoption, awareness, advocacy

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton