PEREIRA, Juliana Maria Fernandes    COSTA, Liana Fortunato. Challenges in ensuring the right to family environment. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. []. 2005, 15, 1, pp.19-31. ISSN 0104-1282.

In this article, we shall discuss the challenges related to the placement of institutionalized elder children and adolescents in foster homes, based on a study that was carried out in a Brazilian metropolitan region. We seek to widen the discussion beyond the dominant perspective in Brazilian literature, which is the adoption of babies. The aim of the investigation was to study the registration of elder children and adolescents for adoption, focusing on the difficulties in the coordination of the parts involved and the meanings constructed by the subjects in such context, as well as on the possible relations between those aspects and the issues of abandonment, institutionalization and adoption. Data indicated that, apart from the lack of applicants for such adoptions, the obstacles are also related to insufficient communication among the various parts and to the difficulties in the definition of how the cases are to be dealt with. The consequent prolongation of the institutionalization period substantially diminishes the possibility of placement in foster homes and of return to the family of origin. The work cast light on the emerging ideology of de-institutionalization and integration into the family, either through adoption, return to the family of origin or alternative forms of family environment.

: abandonment; institutionalization; adoption of elder children and adolescents; family reintegration.

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