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”Category: Awareness
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”World AIDS Day
When the first World AIDS Day took place, in 1988, having HIV meant getting AIDS and dying of it, quite rapidly. It was essential to raise awareness, both to try to prevent the spread of the disease and to push the medical community into coming up with effective treatments. Today, with the rapid improvement of medication to control the HIV that leads to AIDS, and with the number of AIDS deaths on the decline in many parts of the world it may seem to some people that it is no longer very necessary to shine such a light on the issue. People who have access to Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) can live normal lives, aside from taking medication and medical check ups, of normal length. But that is not all there is to it.
Continue reading “World AIDS Day”Time Pressure Is a Risk Factor
At the DI conference in Sofia at the start of the month, Jana Hainsworth of Eurochild gave a ‘lessons learned’ presentation in which she gave the EU some pointers on where they need to improve their approach to encouraging the move from institutional to family-based alternative care. In the previous blog (HERE), I discussed her point that there is a need for a shared terminology surrounding alternative care. Another one of her points – and more indirectly several of them – revolved around the power that is associated with being a distributor of money.
Continue reading “Time Pressure Is a Risk Factor”Need for Common Definitions
Jana Hainsworth, the Secretary General of Eurochild (to which I have been recently accepted as a member too), gave a presentation on the way EU involvement in promoting family-based alternative care falls short, at the Deinstitutionalisation Conference in Sofia, at the start of the month. One of the things she brought up in that presentation, was the need for common definitions for different types of alternative care. This is a very important point.
Continue reading “Need for Common Definitions”30 Years Convention on the Rights of the Child
I remember seeing the announcement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the news, shortly after my 12th birthday. I am not sure why I remember that, because at that time it did not have much of an impact on me. It was something abstract and far away. And it was wedged in between all of the big stories: Tiananmen Square had happened that summer, the Berlin wall had just come down, the Iron Curtain appeared to be vanishing and the Communist Block was breathing its final breaths. Plus, I had only just turned 12 and I lived in the Netherlands, a country where children did not have all that much to worry about or be afraid of. Yet, still, I remember.
Continue reading “30 Years Convention on the Rights of the Child”Helping Children Seek Help
One of the speakers at the DI conference, in Sofia at the start of the month, was Dr Peter Fuggle, director of clinical and service improvement at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in the UK. He talked about the Anna Freud Centre’s approach to helping children who have been institutionalised.
Continue reading “Helping Children Seek Help”A Push Against Volunteering in ‘Orphanages’
On 24 October, Lumos launched a big campaign against volunteering in ‘orphanages’. They held a big event where JK Rowling explained why volunteering in institutions is not a good idea, however well-intentioned it is. The campaign aims to raise awareness, to get businesses and universities to commit to stop encouraging young people to volunteer in ‘orphanages’, and to spread knowledge about more responsible ways of volunteering. This is a wonderful and necessary undertaking. You can find more information about it on their website HERE.
Continue reading “A Push Against Volunteering in ‘Orphanages’”