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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After the Fire: Survivors of Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción at risk – Findings and Recommendations for Action

Disability Rights International, 15 Mar 2017

DRI’s main finding is that survivors of the fire at Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción face immediate danger – including detention in other institutions where they face continued segregation and abuse.

A qualitative study examining psychosocial distress and coping mechanisms among orphan and vulnerable children living in institutional care in New Delhi, India

Abhishek Saraswat & Sayeed Unisa - Journal of Health and Social Sciences, 15 Mar 2017

This study investigated the psychosocial distress and coping mechanisms of institutionalized children living in New Delhi, India.

Children with disabilities: Deprivation of liberty in the name of care and treatment

Shantha Rau Barriga, Jane Buchanan, Emina Ćerimović, Kriti Sharma - Human Rights Watch, 07 Mar 2017

This article focuses on the confinement of children with disabilities to institutions, social care centers, psychiatric hospitals, and informal traditional healing centers in which children may be detained on the basis of their disability and with no other options for care.

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Executive Summary: The Impact of Protection Interventions on Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Humanitarian Crises

Williamson, K., Gupta, P., Gillespie, L.A., Shannon, H. and Landis, D. – Oxfam, 03 Mar 2017

This Executive Summary provides an overview of the systematic review.

Evidence Brief: The Impact of Protection Interventions on Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Humanitarian Crises

Williamson, K., Gupta, P., Gillespie, L.A., Shannon, H. and Landis, D. – Oxfam, 03 Mar 2017

This Evidence Brief provides an overview of the systematic review.

Peer Exploitation: Findings from a Romanian National Representative Sample of Children Living in Long-Term Residential Centres

Adrian V. Rus, Ecaterina Stativa, Max E. Butterfield, Jacquelyn S. Pennings, Sheri R. Parris, Gabriel Burcea, Reggies Wenyika - Child Abuse Review, 02 Mar 2017

This study emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed-type institutions, including a couple of abusive behaviours that have not been previously identified in long-term residential centres.

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When the State Doesn’t Care: A Guide to Accessing Justice for Violations of Children’s Rights in Care Institutions in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus

CRIN, 01 Mar 2017

The aim of this guide is to enable advocates to access the legal and practical tools needed to secure an end to, and compensation for, violations of rights suffered while in institutional care.

Poverty Remains a Europe-wide Cause for Children’s Institutionalisation

Opening Doors, 01 Mar 2017

A review of the evidence on deinstitutionalisation (DI) and the status of care reforms across Europe in 2016 from the Opening Doors for Europe's Children campaign - a pan-European campaign advocating for strengthening families and ending institutional care.

A Mandate to End Placement of Children in Institutions and Orphanages: The Duty of Governments and Donors to Prevent Segregation and Torture

Eric Rosenthal - American University Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, 01 Mar 2017

In this article, Eric Rosenthal examines the implications of the report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Méndez, focused on children deprived of liberty, on the placement of children in institutions and orphanages.

Child violence experiences in institutionalised/orphanage care

Lorraine Sherr, Kathryn J. Roberts and Natasha Gandhi - Psychology, Health & Medicine, 01 Mar 2017

This systematic review addresses violence and abuse experiences in institutionalised care, including frequency and type of abuse/violence, interventions addressing violence in institutional care, the perpetrators of violence, and the connections between abuse and cognitive delays in institutionalised children.