Researching Reasons for Institutionalization of Children with Severe Impairments in St. Petersburg, The Russian Federation.

This presentation is based on an on-going PhD research project on the rights of children with severe impairments. It focuses on the case of St. Peterburg in the Russian Federation. Institutionalisation of children with severe impairments has long been a widespread phenomenon in Russia as well as in other post-soviet countires. According to the Federal State Statistics Service (2010), there are 148 residential institutions which are home to 22,000 children with impairments in the country.  In St. Petersburg, four such institutions house about 1,050 children with severe impairments.  Studies have shown that the systems of social support and education at such institutions do not fully meet these children’s needs or lead to the realization of their rights.

The research explores the factors which influence decisions of parents (or care-givers) of children with severe impairments concerning their institutionalization through the literature review and filed work. The field research will include such methods as semi-structured interviews, focus-groups, photo elicitation interviews of two groups of parents or care-givers: parents or care-givers of children with severe impairments who live in institutions and  parents or care-givers of children with severe impairments who live in families. Additionally, it will include interviewing of specialists from NGOs working for realization of rights of children with impairments in St. Petersburg and Moscow as well as politicians from the Committee of Education and Committee of Social Protection of St. Petersburg. The researcher assumes that right-based programming for this group of children and foundation of appropriate alternatives for institutionalization would reduce out-of-home placement of children with severe impairments.

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Roy Huijsmans