Section 19Sec./Art. 19

Counseling Services. It shall be the duty of the NACC, through the RACCO, child-caring or child-placing agencies, as well as the city, municipal, or barangay social workers, when appropriate, to provide necessary and appropriate counseling services by adoption social workers to the following:

(a) Biological Parents Counseling shall be provided to the biological parents before and after the birth of the child. No binding commitment to an adoption plan shall be permitted before the birth of the child.

In all proceedings for adoption, the NACC shall require proof that the biological parents have been properly counseled to prevent them from making hurried decisions caused by strain or anxiety to give up the child, and to sustain that all measures to strengthen the family have been exhausted and that any prolonged stay of the child in own how will be inimical to child welfare and interest.

A period of three (3) months shall be allowed for the biological parents to reconsider any decision to relinquish a child for adoption before the decision becomes irrevocable.

Counseling and other appropriate social service interventions and services shall also be offered to the biological parents after the child has been relinquished for adoption.

Steps shall be taken by the NACC to ensure that no hurried decisions are made and all alternatives for the childs future and the implications of each alternative have been provided.

(b) Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) Counseling sessions, forums, and seminars on adoption, among others, shall be provided to resolve possible adoption issues and to prepare them for effective parenting.

Adoption telling shall be one of the central themes of the sessions, forums, or seminars to equip the PAPs with the ability to divulge the adoption to the adoptee in a manner that will strengthen the parent-child relationship.

As a proven helpful practice, adoption shall be disclosed to the child as early as possible by the adoptive parents: Provided, That disclosure of adoption shall be mandatory before the adoptee reaches the age of thirteen (13) years old. An adoption social worker must conduct adoption-themed activities to such children, which will inculcate the positive aspects of adoption in their young minds.