During the Immersive Simulation Lab: Family-Based Care Conference in February, one of the participants made an interesting remark, one that I feel is worth looking into more closely. He was a representative of a major NGO and said that when families were offered support in order to make family reintegration possible, there should be a time limit on the support offered.
Continue reading “Should There Be a Time-Limit on Family Support?”Category: Family-based
Foster Care: A Foreign Concept?
When you discuss family-based care and talk about the option of foster care in a country where formal foster care is not present, the reaction you often get is: ‘Oh, but foster care is a foreign idea, it is not part of our culture and it would never work here.’ Interestingly enough this argument is used as a reason to stick to institutionalisation of children.
This is pretty ironic, because institutionalisation of children is definitely a foreign idea that was brought over by colonialists and missionaries, while when you take a closer look, foster care does not turn out to be all that foreign at all.
Continue reading “Foster Care: A Foreign Concept?”Filling the Gap with Emergency Foster Care
More and more people agree that institutional care is not good for children. However, there is still a belief that in some situations putting children in institutions is inevitable. A belief that while it is not good, it is still better than the alternative. This belief exists, because there is a lack of awareness of alternative options. The thought is that the only options are leaving the child in a dangerous situation or putting her in an institution.
The good news is that this is not true. There is a family-based alternative, also in emergency situations. In this blog we will look at what that is.
Continue reading “Filling the Gap with Emergency Foster Care”Forever Families: Adoption
Often children who cannot stay with their parents need an alternative for a limited time. It might be days, weeks, months or sometimes even a few years. However, after that time they may be able to go back to their own parents. That, of course, is the ideal for any child.
Unfortunately, in some cases it is clear from pretty early on, that the child will never be able to return to the care of her parents or extended family. In these cases, it is possible to organise long-term foster care for the child, something that happens in many places. However, foster care usually does not give the same feeling of permanence and security as the other option: adoption.
Continue reading “Forever Families: Adoption”Next Best: Imitation Families
It is very rare, only a very small percentage of children without parental care, but it does sometimes happen that it is not possible to find a place for a child with their extended family, nor in a foster family and the situation is not such that an adoptive family would be appropriate. Usually these children are older, often teenagers, and have complicated challenging behaviour that is difficult to deal with in a family. Or they are children with complex, severe multiple special needs.
What to do with these children? Should they go into an institution? I presume that by now you can predict that the answer here is ‘no’. In this blog we will look at what then.
Continue reading “Next Best: Imitation Families”If Not Extended Family, Then Foster Family
Despite the impression created by the huge numbers of children in institutions and other types of formal alternative care around the world, by far the majority of children not cared for by their parents, are not in formal alternative care. Most of them are already taken in by their extended families, right at this moment, without any additional awareness raising or support. This is something worth building on.
However, just like there are some children who will not be able to be cared for by their parents, no matter how much support they receive and how great the community services available are, there will also be children who do not have extended family members able to take them in and care for them. For them other family-based solutions need to be found.
Continue reading “If Not Extended Family, Then Foster Family”Family-Based Solutions Starts with Extended Family
Prevention of children getting separated from their parents – as discussed in the previous few blogs – drastically reduces the number of children who need alternative care solutions. However, the number of children in need of alternative care will never be zero.
So if they should not go into an institution, where should they go? That is what this blog will look at.
Continue reading “Family-Based Solutions Starts with Extended Family”