#institutionalchildcare

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.

What Does Deinstitutionalisation Mean?

Posted on February 25, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

A very long word, often shortened to DI to save ourselves the trouble, that is thrown around more and more, in various different places. A word of some importance, and therefore important to understand. What exactly do people mean when they talk about deinstitutionalisation and what is involved in the process.

In this blog I will give a brief overview and in the following blogs I will pick out some elements that are mentioned today and look at them more closely, to allow a more thorough understanding to develop.

Next Best: Imitation Families

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

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.

If Not Extended Family, Then Foster Family

Posted on February 12, 2019September 30, 2019 by Florence

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.

Podcast Attachment Disorder in Family Placement

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

The effects of institutionalisation do not necessarily disappear when a child is taken out of an institution and placed with a family. This makes it very important that parents who take in a child who has been institutionalised for some time – whether they are the child’s own parents, foster parents or adoptive parents – receive training and guidance to help cope with this.

In this month’s podcast the real story of a little girl who was adopted is told, to illustrate some of the problems that may arise.

Then next podcast will be posted in four weeks.

Please share this, to help spread awareness.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:22 — 23.0MB)

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Making Education Accessible

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

‘Education is the golden bullet’, a cliché maybe, but that does not make it less true. As mentioned in the blog about education driving children into ‘orphanages’ (HERE) earlier this month, people all around the world are becoming more and more aware of the potential of education for lifting people out of poverty. This makes them willing to send their children to an institution to make sure that they get this marvellous chance.

Unfortunately, the damage done by institutionalisation to a child’s brain development will almost always outweigh the benefits of getting an education. For a child really to get the full benefit of being educated, this needs to be combined with growing up in a family-environment. So, we need to look for other solutions.

‘How Do I Do It?’

Posted on January 3, 2019January 2, 2019 by Florence

As long as I have been involved in institutional childcare – whether trying to improve conditions or trying to eradicate it -, meaning twelve years now, I have been asked the question ‘How do you do it?’ It seems fitting to start the new year with an attempt at answering this.

The question can refer to different things. However, more often than not it refers to how I deal with seeing children deprived of so much, and how I deal with seeing children sick, or even with witnessing their death. I quite understand why people would think that these are the hardest things to deal with, but for me, they aren’t really.

Increasing Momentum of Deinstitutionalisation

Posted on December 31, 2018December 8, 2019 by Florence

As the year draws to a close, it seems almost inevitable to look back and to look forward. Because my work and life are completely entangled with children in institutions and the quest to get them out of there, this features heavily in these ponderings, even on a personal level, for me.

I invite you along with me, as I look back and look ahead. I feel the past year has been a good one, for moving children towards family-based solutions.

Becoming Aware and Becoming Involved

Posted on December 27, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

Last summer, I was having dinner with some people and one of them told me that a friend of his was running a children’s home, somewhere in Africa. He said that there was a real need for that kind of thing, to keep the children safe and well. I told him that I understood his admiration and his friend’s good intentions, but that unfortunately this was not in the best interest of the children. In about five minutes, I outlined the consequences of institutionalisation and the orphanage industry that is blooming around it and the alternatives that give children far better chances in life and are more cost-effective.

The man sat there pretty gobsmacked, as he was processing the information. Later he told me that that conversation had turned his life upside down. If you have been reading the blogs of the past four months without any prior knowledge about the effects of institutionalisation, it is likely that you are feeling much the same.

Where Are the Refugee Children?

Posted on December 18, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

Why, you may ask, am I suddenly looking at a blog about refugee children? That is rather a different subject than institutional childcare or alternative care, isn’t it? Well, yes and no. It is its own, vast and complicated subject. But it is definitely tied in with institutional childcare and alternative care as well.

As part of research data that I have gathered, I have statistics on refugee flows for 2015. This is information on how many people left a particular country as refugees, how many refugees were being hosted by the country and how many people were internally displaced, and for some countries I also have information one what percentage of this group consists of children.