The adoption investigator
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 10/00) - Angus Mackay takes in a lot of meetings, keeps tabs on a lot of programs and makes sure services are running.
But one of the highlights of being the director of community programs and services for the department of health and social services is reuniting birth parents and adoptees.
At the age of maturity many adoptees begin to wonder, he said, and search for links to their past and characteristics they may share with their birth parents.
Birth parents also wonder and sometimes take measures to find a child given up.
"The new act (introduced in 1998) is a lot more open in terms of getting access to information," said the director of two years.
"It's fascinating work but can be very time consuming," he added.
"But sometimes we just pick up a file and the address and phone number is there and they're still at it."
Mackay's job deals mostly with overseeing child protection, addictions and mental health programs and services.
But he also oversees 15 adoption workers and one adoption co-ordinator. As a team they organize adoptions in the North but also track down people involved in files many years old.
"We've got about 15 right now in process where people have made inquiries," Mackay said.
For confidentiality reasons Mackay cannot detail circumstances of any of the cases but said most reunions are happy ones.
"Sometimes it can be very traumatic for both parties but we do offer counselling services and support," he said.
The NWT department has contacts in other jurisdictions for this purpose, creating a network of resources to aid in fulfilling the questions those who have gone through the adoption process have.
"We have found people in southern Canada and sometimes in other parts of the world," he said. "Sometimes the trail can be very old without many traces. There's no way of knowing when you start how long it's going to take."
But Mackay said the investigation process is important and a service he sees as beneficial to those who need their curiosities satisfied.
"People want to know where they are from and what their background is," he explained. "It is very important to them."
