ROMANIAN YOUTH (Article)

Lauren Bouchard, “Romania’s Deinstitutionalization of Children and Youth,”  CYS May08

 

OVERVIEW

 

Romania officially joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. In order to gain admittance Romania had to meet requirements and implement changes that the EU requested be made within the country.  Many of these changes directly dealt with orphanages within Romania and the large number of children that remained within them. Over the past few years Romania has been implementing these changes within the country and have drastically altered the state of orphans and children.

 

The most prominent stipulation introduced to Romania was deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization is the process of moving children from large state-run orphanages into foster care, reuniting them with their families, or placing them in smaller care facilities. In reality, however, there remain many problems surrounding deinstitutionalization and human rights.

 

The implementation of deinstitutionalization, however, has brought a myriad of problems to light. Some of the major problems include:

·       Not enough small care facilities for the huge number of orphans

·       No adequate training has not been provided for those working in the small care facilities

·       Close of international adoption

·       Children are still scarred because of their time spent in Romania’s large institutions

·       Inability for institutionalized children to transition into society as adults

·       Continued discrimination of the mentally disabled, those with HIV/AIDS and Roma

 

PROBLEMS AND A CASE STUDY

In some instances children are moved from orphanages and into adult care institutions. This is especially true in cases of the mentally disabled. A CNN undercover report noted that even today in adult facilities these children are tied down while MDRI recorded that other children were bound in sheets, or suffering with bed sores and from malnourishment (CNN Insight and “Romania’s Disabled Orphans Abused). 

 

One specific example is an institution located in Timisoara during 2006 that holds sixty-five children who do not leave their cribs during the day due to the inadequate number of staff to properly care for them.  Equally disturbing is that many children in these institutions did not enter with disabilities but developed them over time. The Romanian government has made no effort to suggest reform for children with disabilities or for institutions that house adults with disabilities (Hidden Suffering 4, 13). 

 

Other problems that might develop while children were institutionalized are: “cognitive problems, severe emotional and behavioral disorders, a syndrome that mimics autism, sensory integration issues, speech and language delays, serious medical problems, and deficiencies in physical growth” (Hidden Suffering 20). In most cases most children in these institutions suffer from “failure to thrive” which occurs when children do not receive enough nutrition or stimulation and their brains will remain developmentally behind in physical, emotional, and mental skills. These problems all make the deinstitutionalization process more complicated than it would seem.

 

Children scarred from years in orphanages are extremely ill-prepared for life outside of the institution.  This issue is evident as children from the Ceausescu era reach adulthood. Currently the government has no programs for these children to learn basic skills like money management, hygiene, nutrition, or employment skills (Romania’s Abandoned 19). Additionally, children raised in institutions have not received adequate educations or gained learning skills, which makes their adjustment to daily life even harder. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.      Has this article helped you to understand deinstitutionalization in this context? 

2.      What are some problems in the deinstitutionalization process that you noticed here?

3.      Do you know anyone who has been adopted? Social workers tell us that some kinds of adoption are more difficult for children than others. Can you think of some problems those adopted, perhaps across cultures, have working out their identities and adjusting to adult society?

4.      What are some programs/changes Romania could make to ease the deinstitutionalization process?

 

IMPLICATIONS

Deinstitutionalization is creating a serious problem in Romania. It seems as if the country is willing to overlook some such difficulties as long as its economy improves—a priority outsiders must be cautious in judging. Some observers sense it easy to toss children and the disabled aside for the sake of the country’s progress in other ways. Because these orphans, abandoned children, and disabled children do not have a voice, we need to be aware of their situation and raise concern.

 

Lauren Bouchard cCYS 

 

Sources

Ahern, Laurie and Eric Rosenthal.  “Hidden Suffering: Romania’s Segregation and Abuse of Infants and Children with Disabilities,” Mental Disability Rights International, 2006, accessed 27 April 2008, <http://www.mdri.org/mdri-reports-publications.html>.

Unknown. “Romania’s Abandoned Children: 10 Years After the Revolution.”  A Report to America From the U.S. Embassy Bucharest, Romania. February 2001, accessed 28 April 2008,  <www.crin.org/docs/Romania's%20Abandoned%20Children%20-%20Ten%20Years%20After%20the%20Revolutio.doc>.

Unknown. “Romanian Orphans and Orphanages,”  Insight, 21 September 2006, accessed 23 March 2007,  <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/21/i_ins.01.html>.