This Lancet Group Commission, published between The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health and The Lancet Psychiatry, advocates global reform of the care of separated children through the progressive replacement of institutional provision with safe and nurturing family-based care. It provides essential information on both the global scale of institutionalisation and its physical, social, and mental health consequences. It presents a pragmatic roadmap for carefully managed change.
The Commission was led by authors from the Lumos Foundation, King’s College London, and Maestral, with authors from around the world. The Commission was supported by the Lumos Foundation.
The Commission includes:
- Executive Summary
- Part 1: A systematic and integrative review of evidence regarding effects on development
- Part 2: Policy and practice recommendations for global, national, and local actor
- Commentary: A child’s right to family
- Commentary: Children in institutional settings
- Commentary: If not now, then when? The importance of intervening early to provide family-based environments for all children
This Commission is the next milestone report to publish within The Lancet’s 2020 Future Child campaign, which seeks to put children at the heart of The Lancet's vision for a sustainable humanity.