Life Expectancy of Institutionalised Children

During one of the reflective sessions at the DI conference, in Sofia last month, one of the participants mentioned that we need to give more thought to preparing young people who are leaving care. Because, he said, it is all well and good that we take care of them for up to 18 years, but then they still have 50-60 years left to live. While I agree completely with him that more needs to be done in the area of after care for young adults who have grown up in institutions or in other forms of care, I was much more struck by another element of what he said.

In fact, even at the time, my response was: ‘unfortunately they don’t’. It is a sad, but undeniable fact that very few people who have grown up in an institution are likely to have 50 to 60 years left to live when they turn 18 and leave the institution. This is something that we need to be aware of, in order to be able to do anything about it.

While I cannot give exact information about what the life expectancy of adults who grew up in institutions is, I do have a lot of information that points very strongly towards it not being the usual length. To start with, a young adult who has grown up in an institution is 500 times more likely to commit suicide than one who did not grow up there.

They are also 10 times more likely to end up in prostitution and 40 times more likely to end up with a criminal record. While these facts are not in themselves life-limiting, they do put people in situations where they are far more likely to encounter serious violence, whether on the job, in police custody or in prison, and that can be life limiting. Adults who grew up in an institution, also have a higher likelihood of ending up living in the street, again a situation that is very bad for their health and that can be dangerous.

However, even if we discount the threat of violence – from others or from themselves – that hangs over their heads, adults who grew up in an institution are still less likely to live an average lifespan. In a previous blog (HERE), I have explained the meaning and consequences of ACEs. Let’s make a link here, between the care provided in an institution and the definition of ACEs.

Pretty much all children living in an institution experience loss of parents (whether through death or just separation), isolation from the community, and emotional neglect, often also some degree of physical neglect, in many cases both emotional and physical abuse, and they have a far greater vulnerability to sexual abuse.

As explained before, research as shown that when someone has 4 or more ACEs, they have a significantly higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. These are life-limiting illnesses. While other risks, such as for mental health problems and substance abuse, also do not improve health and chances of longevity. And given that children in institutions easily reach 5 or more ACEs – not to mention the fact that, for example, something like neglect in an institution has been shown to often take far more severe forms than neglect within a family – it is not such a far-fetched thought that they are unlikely to reach their seventies and eighties.

Yet another reason to make sure children do not end up in institutions and to make sure that the children who are already in them are moved into family-based placements.

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