Residential Care

Residential care refers to any group living arrangement where children are looked after by paid staff in a specially designated facility. It covers a wide variety of settings ranging from emergency shelters and small group homes, to larger-scale institutions such as orphanages or children’s homes. As a general rule, residential care should only be provided on a temporary basis, for example while efforts are made to promote family reintegration or to identify family based care options for children. In some cases however, certain forms of residential care can operate as a longer-term care solution for children.

Residential care can be a positive alternative for some girls and boys when it is used appropriately and meets certain standards. For example, small group home living arrangements or supported independent living can work well in cases where children (often older teenagers) don’t feel comfortable in a family setting, or where large groups of siblings want to stay together. Similarly in cases where children have suffered trauma, severe abuse or neglect, have a severe disability or require specialised support, small group settings where trained staff can provide therapeutic care may be an appropriate care option. As much as possible, residential facilities should be small, community-based, organised to resemble a family-type or small-group situation and allow for sufficient staff to provide individualised attention to children.

It is important to distinguish between residential care and institutional care, which should only be used as a last and temporary resort for children. Institutional care refers to large-scale group care within big institutional facilities and has been associated with a wide range of problems for children including physical, social and emotional under-development - with babies and infants under the age of three especially vulnerable to lasting harm. Long periods in an institution can deprive children of positive individual attention from consistent caregivers, make it difficult for them to assimilate back into a family and community, and are often linked to increased risk of sexual and physical abuse, a lack of stimulation, and harsh discipline.

In recent years, deinstitutionalisation has been at the heart of national care reform efforts, which seek to reduce reliance on institutional care and to promote family and community based care options for children instead. This includes efforts to promote ethical volunteerism within residential care centres, educate donors and to avoid proliferation of orphanages and children’s homes after humanitarian emergencies.

The documents in this section outline residential care options for children, examine the damaging impact of institutions, explore family and community-based care alternatives and describe care reform efforts including initiatives around ethical volunteerism.

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Promoting Successful Transitions Beyond Institutional Care: A Programme-based Service Delivery Model Linked to a Case Management System

Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera, Antoinette Lombard - Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 2018

This paper reports on findings from an evaluation study of two institutions providing transition programmes to adolescent girls transitioning from institutional care in Zimbabwe.

Intervention Strategies Used by Social Workers in Emergency Child Protection

Jackie Hope, Carlien van Wyk - Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 2018

This research provides insight into the current intervention strategies used by social workers in emergency child protection, whereby children are removed from their caregivers as a result of abuse and are placed at child and youth care centres.

Discussion Paper: Children in out-of-home care: What do medical students learn about them?

Katherine Thornton - Focus on Health Professional Education, 2018

This small pilot study to explores what is currently taught to future doctors about children in out-of-home care (OOHC) and found that there is no formal teaching about these children in the University of Melbourne Doctor of Medicine course.

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Localising De-institutionalistion: The Potentials of Article 20 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Context of Rajasthan, India

Therese Boje Mortensen - Asia in Focus, 2018

This study contributes to a body of scholarship on ‘localising children’s rights’ by presenting findings from an ethnographic case study of an institution for HIV-infected/affected children in Rajasthan, India.

The prevalence of mental disorders among children and youth staying in residential institutions, children’s homes – a review of epidemiological studies

Witold Pawliczuk, Anna Kaźmierczak-Mytkowska, Tomasz Srebnicki, Tomasz Wolańczyk - Psychiatria Polska, 2018

This article presents an overview of the few studies carried out so far in the European residential institutions, including children’s homes, over the years 1940–2011 in the UK, Germany, Romania, and Poland.

Preparedness for Emancipation of Youth Leaving Alternative Care in Serbia

Anita Burgund Isakov and Jasna Hrnčić - International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies , 2018

In order to define what support is necessary for the successful emancipation of young people leaving alternative care in Serbia, this study of 150 young people in care aims to analyse both their preparedness for leaving alternative care, and whether the type of placement (kinship, foster, or residential) makes a difference to the level of preparedness.

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Evaluation of Family Homes as a Housing and Care Solution for Unaccompanied Minor Refugees

Berit Berg and Gry Mette D. Haugen - NTNU Social Research on behalf of SOS Children’s Villages, 2018

This report presents an evaluation of the family home model as part of the 'Our New Children' project in Norway, a collaborative project between SOS Children’s Villages, Asker Municipality and the Housing bank that seeks to "assess the establishment of family homes as the housing and care solution for single minor refugees."

Age limits and eligibility conditions for care, extended care and leaving care support for young people in care and care leavers: The case for cross-national analysis.

Robbie Gilligan - Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 2018

This paper draws attention to a small sample of policy approaches and developments in meeting the needs of oung people leaving care settings in certain jurisdictions.

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Types of Abuse Experienced by Adolescents Living in Charitable Children’s Institutions in Nairobi County, Kenya

Stella Nyagwencha, Alice Munene, Naomi James - African Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2018

The objective of this study was to establish the types of abuse experienced by adolescents with mild and moderate symptoms of anxiety disorder and living in charitable children’s institutions (CCIs).

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Formation and disruption of bonds between caregivers and institutionalized children

Ruth Irmgard Bärtschi Gabatz, Eda Schwartz, Viviane Marten Milbrath, Hudson Cristiano Wander de CarvalhoI, Celmira Lange, Marilu Correa Soares - Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 2018

The purpose of this study was to understand the perspective of caregivers about the formation and disruption of bonds with institutionalized children in Brazil.

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