Welcome To VANISH

VANISH (Victorian Adoption Network for Information and Self-Help) is Victoria’s state funded post-adoption support service.

We are a not-for-profit, secular, charitable organisation established in 1989 by and for people affected by adoption. Our services include:

• information and support
• family tracing
• assistance with reunion
• counselling
• support groups
• creative expression workshops

We also provide training for counsellors and mental health professionals on the impact of adoption and family separation, and we advocate for legislation, policy, and practice that supports the right to genealogical connection and identity.

Our services are offered to adopted people (domestic and intercountry), mothers, fathers, and relatives of adopted people, as well as others who have been separated from family, including donor-conceived people and Forgotten Australians.

VANISH understands past and forced adoption practices and their ongoing legacy of grief, loss, and trauma. Most of our staff and management committee have a lived experience of adoption and/or separation from family and this unique understanding informs everything that we do.