Trigger Alert: Best viewed by those aged 18 years and over, or with Parental Supervision
If the content of this page makes you uncomfortable, we encourage you to talk to your support network and seek help from services that are available to you at any of our recommended post adoption support services.
We recognise the lifelong journey of adoption can often be very difficult for those who live it. Sometimes adoptees choose to leave this life all too early and we wish to honour their life, their experience and make sure they are not forgotten.
ICAV maintains a Facebook Memorial page to keep track of intercountry adoptees who die from suicide or are killed by adoptive families. It’s important not to forget these darker sides of intercountry adoption because they teach us an important lesson: that relinquishment and adoption have a very personal impact that is not always visible nor addressed.
At ICAV we do not wish to ignore these experiences but uphold and honour the lives of our fellow adoptees for whom we wish things could have been so very different!
ICAV participated in an adoption suicide prevention webinar on 27 October, 2021.
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Following on from that first event, ICAV participated in a Twitter Event for Adoption & Suicide on 17 December 2021. You can access the wakelet to read the threads of conversation.
Listen to Adopted Feels 3-part podcast, created in collaboration with ICAV, dedicated to adoptee suicide.
Adoptive mum Beth Syverson and her Japanese adopted son Joey Nakao ran this webinar on Ask Us Anything About Suicidiality
Over the years, ICAV has provided a number of blogs written to raise awareness on Adoptee Suicide:
The Australian Government, Department of Social Services (DSS) funded a literature review of intercountry adoption and suicide. Access this report here.