Deinstitutionalisation in Latvia: Insights from Care Leavers’ Perspectives

This article contributes to the ongoing debate on the deinstitutionalisation of children’s care homes, a subject recently explored in this journal. The findings provide fresh perspectives on the dominant view that group care settings are inherently harmful to children. Through narrative interviews, stories were collected from 19 young adults who had been in orphanage care in Latvia. The findings from these interviews challenge prevailing professional opinions on the experiences and perceptions of group care. Participants shared accounts of their time in care and, in some cases, how they discovered a sense of home for the first time. While this study did not set out to compare different care settings or investigate foster care specifically, reflections on these comparisons emerged from the data. To meet the demands of policy, often reflecting the perspectives of global NGOs, Latvia, like many former Soviet Bloc countries has closed its orphanages and repackaged them under different terminology, such as Youth Rehabilitation Centres. It has also turned to foster care and smaller group settings. The insights from Latvian care leavers offer a vital counterpoint in a context where the advantages of deinstitutionalization and the preference for foster care are often assumed.