Residential care in the Czech Republic: presumption or obstacle to a successful integration of young people to society?
Abstract
Main purpose of this article is to find out how is situation of young people leaving residential care institutions and trying to integrate to a usual life after reaching adultery. Using personal interviews with the young people (present clients of residential care, former clients, employees of the caring institutions) we try to answer questions how these young people are prepared for a normal life in a society and what are main barriers they have to overcome in order to start a new life without institutional help.
Our findings confirm that present system of social services is not effective enough in an effort to help the young people with their integration. We conclude that transformation of the Czech residential care of children from pathological families is inevitable in order to overcome such obstacles as missing emotional help from their biological families and friends, low level of economic independency resulting from low qualification and problems to find a job and an accommodation.