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.

India Trip

Posted on April 1, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

As I am about to get on an airplane again, to go home tomorrow, it seems like a good moment to look back on the weeks I have spent in India and the work I have done here.

As many of you know, before I founded Why Family-Based Solutions, I ran Orphanage Projects. This trip has been an interesting juxtaposition of the work of those two. Having spent half of it on strategising for deinstitutionalisation and the other half on still improving conditions in several institutions.

DI: Resources

Posted on March 28, 2019March 12, 2019 by Florence

When the idea of deinstitutionalisation is first mentioned at an institution, there is usually a lot of push-back. Among the first arguments to be brought up are usually: ‘but we have all these buildings here’, and ‘what about our staff, they will all be out of work’. These are understandable concerns, but – as we shall see in this blog – not things that need to be obstacles.

World TB Day

Posted on March 25, 2019March 12, 2019 by Florence

Yesterday was World TB Day. Tuberculosis is a healthcare issue, of course, but it is also one relevant with regards to institutional care. First of all, as long as TB still goes around, it spreads like wildfire in places where children live close together, for example in so-called orphanages.

World Down’s Syndrome Day

Posted on March 21, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

Today is World Down’s Syndrome Day, a day to raise awareness about Down’s Syndrome and to help dispel some of the myths around it. Myths that in many places lead to children being abandoned and sometimes institutionalised.

Until recently even in so-called Western countries, and today still in many places do people have the impression that every child with Down’s syndrome is a worst-case scenario, with even doctors advising parents not to keep the child, because it is no use. This is a major misconception.

DI: Preparing the Children

Posted on March 18, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

A child who is moved from an institution into a family situation without any preparation, is likely to be traumatised and this may cause a lot of very challenging behaviour. It has been shown that if children with severe intellectual disabilities, who have lived in an institution for a long time, are moved to a family without preparation, the shock can actually kill them.

So, it is essential to provide proper preparation for the children, when you are planning to move them out of an institution. This blog will look at what that entails.

DI: The Institution’s Job

Posted on March 14, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

An institution deciding to move their children to family-based care – or being ordered to by their government – has a big job ahead of it. Just showing the children the door is not going to be enough and would lead to a lot of suffering and trauma among the children. It would be likely to lead to children ending up living on the street and/or being targeted for trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Making the move to family-based care needs to be responsibly handled and carefully planned. So, in this blog I will put forward some of the things that are very important to make sure of.

Podcast Deinstitutionalisation Obstacles

Posted on March 11, 2019March 30, 2024 by Florence

In today’s podcast you will hear some real-life examples of hurdles that can come up, in the early stages of the attempt to move children from institutions to family-based care. And an insight into just how high the stakes are and how important it is to make sure it is done right.

The next podcast will be posted in four weeks.

Please share this, to help spread awareness.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:33 — 14.5MB)

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International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2019March 8, 2019 by Florence

Today is International Women’s Day, something that is celebrated more exuberantly in some countries than in others. Whether or not Women’s Day is celebrated where you are, it is important to give some thought to the position of women and to their achievements.

This is not only useful and important in general, it is also relevant with regards to the efforts to move towards family-based solutions in alternative care.

DI: The Government’s Role

Posted on March 4, 2019March 2, 2019 by Florence

It is possible for individual institutions to decide to start deinstitutionalisation by themselves, at the grassroots level. They can look for ways to support the families of the children in their care, so that the children can go home. They can provide training to the staff working at the institution to give them the skills to become foster parents or small group home caregivers instead, for the children who do not have a home they can go back to.

I am currently involved with an organisation in India that is working not just towards making sure all the children in their care can be moved to family situations, but to create a replicable model that can be followed by others in the country. However, to be able to put together a sustainable system of family-based alternative care, some government involvement is always necessary.

Why Would An Institution Choose DI?

Posted on February 28, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

When you suggest deinstitutionalisation to the management of a residential childcare institution, you usually have an uphill battle. This is not surprising, because why would they want to put themselves out of existence?

Still, despite it starting out as an uphill battle, it is not a fight lost before it was started. There are actually a lot of good reasons for people running an ‘orphanage’ to choose DI, even if you disregard the ‘it is less harmful to the children’-one.