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Little empirical data exist to guide ethical decisions when conducting research with vulnerable populations. The current study assesses a protocol designed to mitigate risks in a population-based cohort of 246 individuals placed in care institutions as infants in a non-selective 60-year follow-up. In total, 116 (47%) individuals chose to participate, of whom 53 (55%) reported positive effects of participation such as the opportunity to fill some gaps in their life stories, to better deal with their past, and to understand previous family dynamics. Only three individuals (2.5%) explicitly reported negative short-term consequences such as feeling upset as a result of thinking about stressful times, but they nonetheless rated the usefulness of the study as high. For six participants (5%), psychological counseling sessions were initiated as a support measure. Our findings suggest that risk of harm can be managed with a rigorous ethics protocol when conducting research with a vulnerable cohort and therefore enable the voices of survivors to be heard. A step wise approach in which increasing amounts of information were presented at each step, clearly operationalized passive decline, and direct and consistent contact with highly trained staff were considered key to mitigating distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on institutional care and its long‐term effect on life trajectories provides crucial and sometimes unexpected insights. In a qualitative study in Switzerland, we have conducted 37 narrative interviews with people who experienced residential care between 1950 and 1990. The analysis was based on a reconstructive life course perspective and grounded theory. The findings show a complex interplay of residential care context (here: narratives from expert discourses) and intersubjective experiences during and after care. Most interviewees learned from their experiences to be sceptical of social relationships and of all kinds of state interventions—even decades after having left. A few were able to take charge of their lives and steer them in an individually successful direction. In these cases too, results point to fragile concepts of success. Thus, critical questions about residential care in these decades remain. We suggest that rather than abolish residential care facilities, we need to gather more evidence about the factors that contribute to high‐quality out‐of‐home‐placements. As professional settings, they can enable young people individually. They need to avoid responding to children as 'objects of care', by neglecting all subjective dimensions and reproducing a pattern of powerlessness with a strong focus on formal, measurable goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important goals of out of home placements is to reduce vulnerability and to enable well-being in the long term. This article hermeneutically reconstructs biographies decades after leaving-care to understand the impact of residential care experiences on selected dimensions of care-leavers' well-being, that were discovered in the data material. For this article three analytic areas were selected from the core of the narratives of former care leavers: Social networks, parenthood and state interventions. The selected findings on long-term outcomes presented here are based on a qualitative research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on life trajectories after residential care (1950–1990). The authors have conducted 37 biographical narrative interviews with former children placed in residential care between 1950 and 1990 in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. The analysis of these narrative interviews was structured by the inductive procedures of Grounded Theory. Its foundation is the conceptualisation and dimensionalisation of data through inductive coding within the narratives. Research question: We mainly were interested in aspects of transitions exclusively relevant from the actors' point of view. The objective of this paper is to learn for the future by taking biographical experiences and long-term outcome in account. As we know residential care facilities have changed in last decades, but structurally some key figures are still continuing. They still interrupt the life course two times: when you start to the live in the institution and when you leave. One main question is how young people manage to integrate residential experiences through their life course and where they keep on struggling until the end of their lives. From a life-course perspective, the impact of social service intention on individual life courses, behind sending the individuals to such facilities, are important to investigate. They implicate relevant information concerning current practice and impact of placing children in residential care. Social networks and experiences of parenthood show why we must frame and accompany transitions out of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the child welfare policies and practices in Switzerland before the law reform of 1981 were rather invasive and were exercised under a legal context that sometimes threatened basic human rights. The inclusion of survivors of such measures in the research process has been vigorously requested in Switzerland. Therefore, four individuals who had been placed in institutions as children have been included in the process of preparing a recently initiated, 60- year follow-up study of individuals placed in infant care institutions in Switzerland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Using focus interviews and 'thinkaloud' methods, the interviewees commented on two parts of the planned research process: (a) how to contact the cohort, and (b) finalising the assessment instruments. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Interviewees felt their participation was a sign of recognition of their experience and expertise. Their input contributed to the research in a host of ways. For example, they helped to make documents more understandable, identified errors and redundancies, and pointed out wording that might cause insecurities or negative reactions. They also pointed to shortcomings in some of the items used in the assessment instruments. In addition, they made significant contributions regarding how best to approach and work with the cohort. This study shows that, when researching historical compulsory social measures, the inclusion of formerly institutionalised individuals in development and implementation is not only feasible, but is of significant benefit to the quality of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family-based solutions for children in care are the preferred option in European countries on the grounds of both cost and quality. Yet, too often, foster care placements intended to be long term are terminated unexpectedly early. Few studies have identified factors leading to unexpected breakdown and fewer still have translated such findings into practical guidance for professionals. This article outlines: (a) the ambiguity and contradictions in the use of terminology (e.g., instability, breakdown, disruption) in several international studies; (b) the adoption of a one-sided, file-based, systemic perspective in recent studies of foster care instability, breakdown, and disruption; and (c) empirical data collected from interviews with foster children. Foster care breakdown is shown to be a process that takes place on several levels. In addition to the actual breakdown event, the situation of the child before the placement, the situation during the placement, the emergence and development of the crisis and the consequences of the breakdown for all those involved are all part of the process. It is only in retrospect that the ending of a foster care process is perceived as a breakdown. Assessments of whether it was planned or unplanned, expected or unexpected, and desirable or undesirable are meaningful only from an individual perspective. Such a perspective must be clearly identified: different people experience and remember the same breakdown in different ways, and its significance for their personal biographies may vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terms "care farming" and "social agriculture" are used to describe the foster care that farming families provide to children, adolescents, and adults. Whereas some European countries have national systems that provide support for care farming, little is known about care farmers in Switzerland. Best estimates show that at least one percent of all agricultural family operations provide care services in Switzerland; accordingly, care farming is a component of Swiss foster care. Against the background of the recent revision of the Child and Adult Protection Act [Kindes- und Erwachsenenschutzgesetz] and of legal provisions in relation to foster care, a qualitative system analysis was carried out in three cantons in 2013. The aim of the system analysis was to describe the context and importance of care farming and to identify the attitudes and working methods of both child and adult protection authorities and family placement organizations in relation to placements in agriculture. As part of the study, documents were analyzed and expert interviews were held with representatives of both groups. The interviewed representatives of the placement authorities regard placements in agriculture as a viable option, in particular for adolescents, if the match between the client and foster family is suitable. According to the surveyed family placement organizations, the interest among farming families in offering foster places is considerable. The study presents care farming as one care service within a complex support system for children and adolescents, and raises new questions for investigation by more detailed research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]