‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for case workers’ is not only useful for people involved in moving children from institutions to families to increase their knowledge and awareness about the effects of institutionalisation and how they can support families to help children catch up. Because it gives detailed information about how care in institutions differs from care in families and in what ways this causes harm, it also provides important ‘ammunition’ for advocacy for alternative care reform towards family-based care and family strengthening.
Continue reading “Advocacy Material from Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions”Tag: #institutionalchildcare
Audio Version of the Training Manual for Case Workers
I am proud to announce the audio version of all 17 chapters of ‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for caseworkers’ are now all available to order for a small price at the web shop of this website. You can order the chapters individually, or all 17 together (in which case the price will be reduced to include taxes in the 1 euro fee per chapter and the Conclusion is added free of charge) HERE.
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A Taste of The New Book
My new book “Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children. To support the child you adopt.” is about to come out/has just come out. Here, I want to give you a little taste of what it is about, with an excerpt:
Continue reading “A Taste of The New Book”Ensuring Help Does Not Harm Ukrainian Children
It has taken me a while to feel able to write a blog about the situation of children from Ukraine during the current war. Even though from the start I felt that I wanted to. The main problem, I think, was that there are just so many aspects to the problems that the children are facing, that it is hard to know where to start. A lot of organisations and individuals have jumped into action and are doing absolutely everything they can to keep Ukrainian children as safe as possible. Unfortunately, under the current circumstances, it feels a lot like trying to carry water in a sieve. However, with many of the basics being addressed, things are starting to crystalise a bit more for me.
Continue reading “Ensuring Help Does Not Harm Ukrainian Children”Children’s Lives Matter, So Let’s Fix the Contract
Recently, I was giving training on case management to a team working to safely reintegrate institutionalised children into their families. As is usual, the issue of challenging behaviour of the children and where it comes from came up. As we were discussing this, I was suddenly struck by a link to something Trevor Noah – a South African comedian in the US – said so eloquently last year.
Continue reading “Children’s Lives Matter, So Let’s Fix the Contract”The Promise of Institutions
I have mentioned it in various ways on various occasions, but I think it is important to lift this point out and look at it closely. The point being that children ending up in institutions is not just about push-factors – such as not having anywhere else to go – there are major pull-factors. If you are not aware of this and do not take it into account, it will not be possible to avoid the unnecessary separation of children from their families or to successfully remove children from institutions.
Continue reading “The Promise of Institutions”Children in Institutions During the Pandemic
Over the past week, there have been blogs about the issues faced during the Covid-19 pandemic by families facing poverty (HERE), by children in foster care (HERE), and by children who have suddenly be pushed out of institutions as part of the protection measures against the virus (HERE). What we have not looked at yet, are children who are still living in institutions, and it is high time that we did.
Continue reading “Children in Institutions During the Pandemic”Harm Caused by Institutionalisation- Short Version
When I was helping to put the written material together for the Immersive Simulation Lab: Family-Based Care Conference last month, writing parts for the conference pack, for press releases and so on, I was asked to give a very short version of how institutional care is harmful to children. This was followed with the reassurance that I could just copy something from my website or blogs. It sounded like good advice, except that when I started to look for a few paragraphs to borrow, I discovered that I have not written a blog-size version of the general overview yet. So I guess it is high time to change that. Here is my attempt:
Continue reading “Harm Caused by Institutionalisation- Short Version”Corona Virus and Institutionalised Children
News about the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, has been hard to escape for the past couple of months. A lot of people are very worried and various media and industries seem to be whipping up the worry into a panic. It can be hard to keep a level head and to know how to take necessary, sensible precautions, without losing yourself in panic. What can also be hard, is to be aware of what the various groups at greatest risk are. Until you are reminded of it inescapably, as I was while I was in India.
Continue reading “Corona Virus and Institutionalised Children”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”