18 December 2019 was a momentous day for anyone involved in ending institutional care. It was the day that all 193 member states of the UN General Assembly adopted a unique Resolution on the Rights of the Child. This is the first such resolution that addresses the subject of children without parental care, including those in alternative care. And it uses unusually strong language when discussing the risks that this group of children are exposed to.
Continue reading “Agreement on the Need to Get Rid of 'Orphanages'”Author: Florence
I am the founder of and consultant at Family-Based Solutions. I have started this website and this community, and I am the moderator. I have been involved in alternative care since 2007, having been involved up close in China, Brazil, India, Kenya and Myanmar.
Initially I ran another NGO dedicated to improving the chance of survival and the quality of life of children in institutions, over time getting more and more involved with family-based alternatives and community services. In 2018 I folded the previous NGO and founded Family-Based Solutions. You can find more information on what I do now on the other pages of this website.
End of Year
Another year is about to end, and with it we leave the teens of the 21st century behind us. So, some more musings from me on time passing, things developing and life in general. This time last year, I wrote a blog about the increasing momentum of deinstitutionalisation all across the work (you can find it HERE). Over the past year, other promising movements have gathered pace.
Continue reading “End of Year”Involving Parents
At the DI conference in Sofia, last month, Professor Andy Bilson warned people who are involved in social work and alternative care that we need to stop seeing parents as ‘the problem’ and start making them part of the solution. And he made a very strong case for this.
Continue reading “Involving Parents”Christmas Thoughts
Last month my (last surviving) grandmother passed away, if she had still been alive, she would have turned 99 the day after tomorrow, a Christmas baby. I have been thinking lately that, although during my lifetime I have only known her as a potter – always working with clay, making pots and sculptures on commission, and teaching classes – in a way, I am walking in her footsteps, with the work that I am doing. It’s just that they are the footsteps she took earlier in life.
Continue reading “Christmas Thoughts”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.
Continue reading “Life Expectancy of Institutionalised Children”Bucharest Early Intervention Project
On the last day of the DI conference in Sofia, last month, we were treated to an amazing presentation by the three researchers who set up and are running the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. This is a longitudinal study done in Romania to compare the outcomes for 136 children who were placed in an institution and of whom half stayed in the institution – as they would have if the research project had not taken place – and half were placed in high quality foster care, set up by the research team. And in addition 72 children who grew up in their own families, having never been placed in care, were followed as a comparison group.
Continue reading “Bucharest Early Intervention Project”Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes
There is increasing debate among people involved in designing alternative care for children as to whether or not small group homes are an acceptable option that is in the best interest of the children. There is no consensus on this yet. In fact, I have recently put in a bid to be allowed to do the literature review that SOS Children’s Villages is commissioning to get an overview of the research done on this.
Continue reading “Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes”Human Rights Day
Today it is 71 years ago that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in Paris. More than twice as old as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and containing only 30 articles, but when you read them, it is incredibly comprehensive. And yet, at such a venerable age, it is heartbreaking to realise how far we are – in any country at all – from actually truly honouring all the rights listed in that declaration.
Continue reading “Human Rights Day”Early Childhood Intervention
When listening to Professor Frank Oberklaid talking about the ‘brain architecture being built in an hierarchical ‘bottom up’ sequence’, at the DI conference in Sofia, last month, I was struck by the methaphor he used. I have been using phrases like ‘the foundation of the brain’ and ‘when you build on a foundation with holes in it, the building won’t stand’ to explain the effects of institutionalisation on children for years now, but I had never heard anyone else use ‘architectural terms.’
Continue reading “Early Childhood Intervention”International Day of Persons with Disabilities
In last year’s blog to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (which you can find HERE), I explained how children with disabilities are more likely to end up in institutions and less likely to get out of them, even when a transformation of care process has been set in motion. This year, I would like to shine a light on how children with disabilities are more often than not excluded from any decisions made about them, even more so than children in institutions are in general.
Continue reading “International Day of Persons with Disabilities”