Clinical and Community Services
International Adoptions Health Resource Center
The Washington metropolitan area has undergone a marked influx of children adopted primarily from orphanages from the countries of the former Eastern Block. Since 1990, the Child Development Center at Georgetown University has delivered services especially designed to meet the needs of adoptive parents and their children from abroad.
Services Offered
The International Adoptions Resource Center (IAHRC) is one of the few clinics in the United States specializing in the evaluation of medical, developmental, and nutritional problems among internationally adopted children. The clinic offers counseling for adoptive parents, screening, as well as comprehensive medical, nutritional, and developmental evaluations and intervention strategies for these children after their arrival to the United States. Several staff members are fluent in eastern European languages and interpreters are readily available.
Referrals to subspecialties, such as neurology, genetics endocrinology, and infectious diseases, are available through the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. The Center staff works closely with primary care providers and on going follow-up is also available.
Interdisciplinary Team
An interdisciplinary team working with the children and their families includes experienced professionals from a wide range of disciplines, such as:
- Communications Disorders/ Speech-language Pathology
- Audiology
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Genetics
- Occupational Therapy
- Physical Therapy
- Psychology
- Social Work
Professional and Public Education
In close collaboration with several parent groups such as Families of Russian and Ukrainian Adoption and the Romanian Connection, the Child Development Center conducts or sponsors local and regional conferences to disseminate information. Issues addressed pertain to adoption in general and foreign adoptions in particular and include health, child development, cultural differences, parenting, psychosocial, legal, and ethical aspects of adoption.
The IAHRC accepts third party payment for most HMO's, PPO's and private health insurance.
For futher information, please contact:
Nina Scribanu, M.D. (Brief biography)
University Medical Center
Department of Pediatrics
Call Diane Lemieux 202/687-6619
