Adoptees records coming soon as officials grapple with onslaught of requests

While the Department of Social Development has been fielding an average of 20 calls a day and has received 135 official requests for information since it opened its adoption records on April 1, no packages have been sent out.

But Sandra Barton, who works in the Post Adoption Disclosure Services unit, says people should start receiving packages in the mail soon.

"It was very important to us to take the time we needed to take to really ensure that we've done this correctly, even down to addresses and postal codes to ensure that when that mail out goes out, that it's done accurately," she said.

135 applications reviewed

To date, Barton has reviewed all 135 applications from primarily adoptees who are searching for birth parent information, since the department opened its adoption records on Easter morning.

The department has added two extra staff who find out to whom the applicant is related and then fill out another form to go to Service New Brunswick.

"What I can tell you is that all of the applications that have come to us have been registered. We are now dependent on retrieving documents for mail out," Barton said.

"At this point my understanding is that the mailouts should be happening in the next week or so. There should be people starting to receive the documents."

Veto still possible

A Statement of Original Registration of Birth contains the child's birth name, their mother's name at the time of birth and sometimes their father's, which is crucial information for an adoptee's search.

For parents seeking their children, they get their child's adopted name.

But a child or a parent can veto the release of that information if they register that request. Barton did clarify if the request for information comes in before the veto is received, the province will honour the request.

"If we receive while it's in processing then we will redact information from the documents they are going to receive," Barton said.

"If the disclosure veto comes in after it's processed, there's very little we'd be able to do to prevent a release of information. At that point the document will go out."

Older records

Bill Innes, the director of child welfare and disability support services branch of social development, said the ability to file a veto has not expired.

"So, really individuals can file a veto at anytime, and if their information has not been released prior to the veto receipt being received, they will be honoured yes."

Innes said the records that are being requested are, for the most part, older records that in some cases are 50 to 60 years old.

"I think it's important that we process those files and make sure that we are providing the right information, and it takes time to find that information within those files."

Innes said historically, there can be upwards of 24,000 to 25,000 adoptions in the province with files going back more than 100 years.

Painful process

Barton said it can be a painful process for birth mothers who were promised the information would remain confidential.

"For many of them, the drama surrounding placing the child for adoption, and sometimes around how they conceived that child, becomes very fresh for when we start to talk about opening adoption records.

"So there's one group that want the information; there's another group that's experiencing a lot of pain."

Barton said many women tell her they've never stopped thinking about that person, they think about them on a daily basis, but they aren't able to talk to their family about it.

"So you can appreciate both sides. There is no right answer here for people," she said.

"Sometimes those needs conflict, and people don't want to share their information. They don't want to relive all the pain that they've been through versus people who really want that information that's important for their history and their family."

Barton cautioned people who receive information about their birth mother, birth father or child to think carefully about how they'll use the information.

"For some adoptees they believe that if they approach them that the response will be different," she said. "And I worry that the response won't be different, that people will be very upset and that the situation will play out the way they think that it might and that they will be hurt again."