Improving Adoption Outcomes through Intelligent Matching Technology

Adoption Matching is the process of bringing together a child in need of adoption with qualified prospective parents. It is an important stage prior to arriving at an adoption decision. Matching involves choice — a choice that may forever alter a child’s life and that of an adoptive family. It is a responsibility typically assumed by a team of professionals dedicated to the protection and well-being of children, including psychologists, social workers and jurists.

Adoption Matching is a serious and complex task that may result in negative consequences for both an adoptive family and child if an unsuitable match is made.

This page discusses how innovative information technology can significantly enhance the adoption matching process. Specifically, what it will show is that there is a need for a very high degree of sophistication in the matching logic of an information system to mirror the complex process that occurs naturally in human judgement and reasoning.

When designed and implemented correctly, intelligent matching technology can be very valuable, enabling more informed choices that lead to better outcomes and a more streamlined and transparent adoption process.

Benefits of Intelligent Adoption Matching

Intelligent adoption matching technology can benefit adoption agencies in numerous ways:

• Reducing the time and effort required to sort through vast amounts of information to find a best fit, resulting in greater confidence in decisions.
• Improving accountability by reporting matching results in a structured, factual manner that can be replicated. Choices and decisions are defensible and transparent.
• Eliminating the potential for oversight, guesswork and subjectivity that occurs when matching relies on human evaluation of complex criteria. The quality of decisions is enhanced, not compromised.

Ultimately, the result is a better outcome for children and parents, not only because a structured approach is used to assess compatibility, but because criteria are applied consistently and thoroughly to arrive at an informed adoption decision.

Summary

Using an information system to help support adoption matching makes a lot of sense. Yet, a matching system needs intelligent and sophisticated capabilities in order to replicate the type of thinking used in human judgement and improve upon that.

Bi-directional and approximate search, ranges, iteration, scoring and weighting are some of the features which distinguish intelligent matching. This type of intelligent matching capability enables relevant matches to be presented based on “best-fit” criteria in a manner that is objective, consistent and insightful.

Adoption professionals, parents and children stand to benefit greatly from intelligent matching technology that can lead to improved outcomes.

In particular, agencies strapped for time and resources will benefit from a streamlined process which helps unite waiting children and adoptive families more quickly, while reducing chance and guesswork.

Sohema is a full-featured and flexible adoption management system used by governmental and non-governmental agencies. A comprehensive range of activities are supported including recruiting, client and child tracking, birth father and family reunion registrations, outcomes reporting and more.