This chapter appears in Child Maltreatment in Residential Care: History, Research, and Current Practice, a volume of research examining the institutionalization of children, child abuse and neglect in residential care, and interventions preventing and responding to violence against children living in out-of-home care settings around the world.
Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss a transformative change in Turkey that has witnessed a decline in the number of institutional residential care centers (“orphanages”) over the course of the past two decades. In great part this transformation was possible as a result of collaborative, interdisciplinary evidence-based studies in conjunction with changes in public attitude in the country. Although the change from institutional- to family-based community care including adoption, foster care, and restored family home care has not fully taken place, there have been significant advances in the quality of life of institution-reared children, adolescents, and adults. Each country has a different historiography and pace of implementation of evidence-based practice in protection of vulnerable youth. As in Turkey, the situation remains urgent worldwide with relevance in particular to middle-income as well as low-income countries. This chapter also offers a background on the development of the child welfare system in Turkey. We discuss key developments in the context of their relevance to the mental health of children and adolescents, as well as adults, exposed to abuse and neglect; the risk and protective factors of residential care; the current status of family-based home and community care, as well as the challenges of the collaboration between systems of care; and finally, the prospect for evidence-based interventions and targeted treatments.