Residential care is an expensive and drastic form of intervention with forereaching consequences to children, families and the community. Residential care has come a long way since the days of orphans and huge institutions providing basic care for children until they were old enough to fend for themselves “out there…” Times and needs have changed drastically since then.

Residential care is a very specialised form of intervention that happens when a family is in dire need of help/change/ support and the necessary support structures in the community are not in place or not specific to their needs. To remove children from their families and place them in a residential environment – albeit a caring, therapeutic milieu – stays traumatic and requires a lot of understanding and skill from all the professionals involved; to act in the best interest of both children and their families. The ultimate aim of residential care is to help families to function optimally in their own communities – therefore re-uniting children and their families after successful and intensive intervention where possible.

To change set behaviour patterns and learn new skills takes a long time and requires hard work. Children and families in our care have to fact these challenges every day – often against overwhelming odds. Our job is to be there 24 hours a day, every day, every step of the way – encouraging, teaching, supporting and applauding.

In the new paradigm, emphasis is placed on “prevention” and community based support structures to prevent the use of more drastic measures like residential care as far as possible. This is good and definitely the way to go in the future.   Children’s homes should become a resource center for the community it serves.

But there will always be those families that will benefit most from residential care, and we owe it to them to have those facilities in place, and staff them with people who are true professionals in their field and who will provide these families with the best possible care they can offer.