Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 34 : Institutional Services

Introduction

The child caring institution is a facility that offer that substitute care for the child whose parents cannot /or will not implement their parental role, child caring institution may a temporary or permanent facility, the institution, like the foster home –provide temporary substitute care while adoptive home can offer permanent care but whole either, it offers group care rather than family care.

In certain cases bringing up children becomes necessary to place them in institutions, particularly in the case of handicapped children or others in need of specialized treatment. Institutionalization will, therefore, remain a useful service at least to some extent for some time to come under the existing circumstances. However, Institutional care is available to destitute, delinquent, physically handicapped and emotionally disturbed children as also to children of families in which due to desertion, death, long illness, imprisonment, unemployment, etc., it is not possible for the child to stay at home.

The type of the treatment for each kind of child may be different. Having accepted this principle of institutionalization as a treatment for some categories of problem children, we have to see that institutions are run on certain minimum standards, so as to facilitate eventual rehabilitation. Group living is the basis of institutional care.

Definition:
Children institution is defined as 24 hours residential facility in which a group of unrelated children live together in the care group of unrelated adults. According to Mayur Richman Balarzak (1977), Children institution as “one or more buildings especially established for the purpose of homing and caring for group of children (15 or more) who cannot live with their families. It may be located within or without a residential community. There are many different kinds of Institutions seeing different kinds of children among them are the following.

1. Limitations for normal but dependent and neglected children this is the closet modern analogy to the old orphan system
2. Institution for physically handicapped children, there are separate institution for children who are blind, deaf, crippled and so on.
3. Institution for the mentally retarded or mentally defective children.
4. Institution for the confinement and rehabilitation of Juvenile delinquent there are called training schools.
5. Institution for emotionally disturbed children there is known as residential treatment centers.
6. Emergency facilities that accept children as a short term bones whole study is made of the situation to determine the best plan for their care.
7. Diagnostic or observation center to which child is referred for the explicit purpose of undergoing a detailed physical, psychological and social study.

Different institution seeing different group of children are of course opt to differ in many essential details are have in common to all institutions.