For a long time, it was thought that if it was difficult to place a child with a foster family, placing him in a small group home was a suitable alternative. Group homes were seen as imitating families and where therefore expected to have a similar beneficial effect.
Over the past couple of years, experts have come back from this position, because there is too much evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
I recently attended a webinar held by experts in the fields of Child Rights, Disability Rights and Alternative Care. This is where I, myself, was first confronted with pretty overwhelming evidence of the outcomes for children who spent years in small group homes being significantly worse than those for children who were in foster care. As always, I am eager to share new discoveries that I have made.
As they pointed out the Child and Disability Rights Charters and the UN Guidelines for alternative care, were never meant to be taken as rules that are set in stone. As understanding of the best interest of the child shifts, so must the approaches to alternative care.
One of the findings presented, which I found on the one hand shocking, on the other hand not that surprising, was that while group homes are supposed to operate as artificial family-situations, in practice that is often not the case. In many cases, small group homes operate like miniature institutions, rather than like families. They still operate using regimented structures, without much regards for children’s individual needs, with children expected to adjust to the routine, rather than the other way around. And although many group homes are situated within the community, this does not always mean that children are actually given the opportunity to be a part of that community.
When looking at outcomes with regards to mental health, education and criminal records, children who grew up in foster families do considerably better than those who grew up in group homes.
However, apart from this bad news, there was also good news. While it can be hard to find suitable families to take care of a child with complicated medical needs or with serious challenging behaviour, it has been empirically proven that it IS possible to handle these things within a family. Families need training and support to be able to cope with the situation, but it has been done. And children have thrived in families, despite extremely challenging needs and complicated backgrounds.
So, while people move towards small group homes with the best of intentions, when they start the process of transforming care to family-based care, we need to be aware of the fact that this should not be used if it can be avoided at all. Efforts need to be made to make sure all children can grow up in a family.
Please share this blog to help spread awareness.
