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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Children living in institutional care in northern India: A study

Sonam Rohta - Developmental Child Welfare, 22 Jan 2021

The present paper emphasizes on the trends of institutional care in India where the large population is poor. Keeping in view the socio-economic conditions of the country, it is an attempt to explore the challenges and living conditions of children in institutional care run by government and non-governmental organizations in the regions of Punjab and Chandigarh in northern India.

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The role of attachment to the foster parent with regard to suicidal risk among adult survivors of childhood maltreatment

Camille Danner Touati, Raphaële Miljkovitch, Aino Sirparanta, Anne-Sohpie Deborde - Child Abuse & Neglect, 21 Jan 2021

The aim of this study was to examine whether 1) attachment to the biological parents mediates the association between abuse and suicidal risk (SR) and 2) attachment to a foster parent (whether from a foster home or an institution) moderates the effect of attachment to biological parents on SR.

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Shared residential placement for child welfare and juvenile justice youth: current treatment needs and risk of adult criminal conviction

Lena Jäggi, Marc Schmid, David Bürgin, Nadine Saladin, Alexander Grob & Cyril Boonmann - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health logo Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 21 Jan 2021

The aim of the current paper is to examine the demographic, crime-related and psychosocial characteristics of child welfare and juvenile justice youths in shared residential care and subsequently examine its relationship with offending behavior in adulthood.

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Prevalence, incidence and chronicity of child abuse among orphaned, separated, and street-connected children and adolescents in western Kenya: What is the impact of care environment?

Samuel Ayaya, Allison DeLong, Lonnie Embleton, David Ayuku, Edwin Sang, Joseph Hogan, Allan Kamanda, Lukoye Atwoli, Dominic Makori, Mary A. Ott, Caroline Ombok, Paula Braitstein - Child Abuse & Neglect, 21 Jan 2021

The two primary objectives of this study were 1) to compare recent child abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) between orphaned and separated children and adolescents’ (OSCA) living in institutional environments and those in family-based care; and 2) to understand how recent child abuse among street-connected children and youth compared to these other vulnerable youth populations.

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Environmental determinants of physiological reactivity to stress: The interacting effects of early life deprivation, caregiving quality, and stressful life events

Mark Wade, Margaret A. Sheridan, Charles H. Zeanah, Nathan A. Fox, Charles A. Nelson and Katie A. McLaughlin - Development and Psychopathology, 11 Jan 2021

The authors of this study used data from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of foster care for institutionally reared children to examine whether caregiving quality and stressful life events (SLEs) in early adolescence (age 12) influence patterns of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity.

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Mentoring as an individual form of preparing orphans for independent living in Ukraine

Iuliia Udovenko, Tetiana Melnychuk, and Julia Gorbaniuk - Current Problems of Psychiatry, 09 Jan 2021

The purpose of the study is to analyze and define the content, specifics, and procedures of social and psychological work with citizens who have expressed a desire to become mentors for orphans.

‘The best of both worlds’: Lagos private schools as engaged strategists of transnational child-raising

Ruth Cheung Judge - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 08 Jan 2021

This paper explores Lagos private schools as crucial sites of care for children with parents in the diaspora.

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Some Considerations for Changing Child Welfare Facilities in Accordance with the Changing Characteristics of Children in Need

Sung-Eun Lim - Korea Institute for Health & Social Affairs, 05 Jan 2021

This brief discusses ways in which the roles and functions of Korea’s child welfare facilities should change to better meet the diverse needs of children in need.

Educational Experiences of Care Leavers from Residential Care in Ghana

Kwabena Frimpong-Manso - Child & Youth Services , 04 Jan 2021

This study aims to explore the experiences of Ghanaian care leavers to discern the factors that promote and impede their educational attainment.

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Using sexual health and safety education to protect against child sexual abuse in residential care: The LINC model

Gemma McKibbin, Anna Bornemisza, Ana Fried, Cathy Humphreys, Madelaine Smales - Child & Family Social Work, 03 Jan 2021

This paper explores the impact of the Power to Kids: Respecting Sexual Safety programme, which involved capacity‐building workers to have ‘brave conversations’ with children and young people in residential care.

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