Strategies and practices for prevention and overcoming social orphanhood[Профилактика И Преодоление Социального Сиротства: Стратегии И Практики]

At the current stage of orphanage deinstitutionalization reform, social policy actors face the need to solve placement problems for 'complicated' categories of children without parental care. They also have to develop measures to minimize the risks of separating children from their parents. This makes it relevant to search for development directions for foster families and effective mechanisms for orphanage prevention. The goal of this paper is to describe and analyze effective strategies and evidence in the foster care space. To accomplish that, both Russian and foreign literature have been reviewed. The review includes sources describing successful strategies and evidence in the foster care field, as well as the forms of placing children without parental care into foster families. We also summarize and describe the following foster care programs and approaches: early intervention programs, strategies addressing newborn abandonment, supervisory strategies for families at risk of child removal/abandonment using case management, parenting skills development programs, and the creation of crisis centers for women and children. In the realm of social orphanhood, the emphasis was placed on the forms of family placement, their features and goals. As a result, we identified key trends in the fields of social orphanhood prevention and overcoming and identified the main avenues for support that can improve its efficiency. These include customization of support, a focus on preventive services and forms of help, a complex approach towards support, viewing families and children as active subjects in overcoming difficult life situations, as well as diversification of foster family placement forms and the professionalization of foster care.