Far better ways to care for children

I was shocked to read that in this day and age a government official influencing policy toward children would ignore a century of solid research and urge the government to continue to institutionalise children in places like Lourdes Home. Such outdated attitudes are part of the reason American child welfare is so plagued with problems.

Even when the institutions are not abusive, the research is overwhelming: Institutionalisation is inherently harmful and there are far better alternatives. That's why, occasionally, American orphanages and "residential treatment centres" have crises of conscience, close almost all their residential beds and reform to serve far more children, far better, in their own homes or in foster homes.

Children's Commissioner Carmen Zammit offers all the usual rationalisations about "stability". But warehousing children in an institution where caregivers dispense indiscriminate pseudo-love to anyone who walks in the door, in some cases only to throw them out again when they reach a certain age, deprives children of the real love and stability they need. Children know the difference between a Potemkin Village family and a real family.