The role of complex social services for the children from families at risk

Vide Gudzinskiene,Rimvydas Augutavicius,U Berkis,L Vilka

doi:10.1051/shsconf/20185101003

Abstract

The social assistance for social risk families in Lithuania is provided by child protection agencies, social welfare departments, family support and crisis centres, pedagogical-psychological services, care homes, various educational institutions and NGO's. One specific form of social support services for social risk families is called Children Day Care Centres (CDC), whose activities are based on a systematic set of measures designed to protect the social interests of children, to ensure social security and realize the basic needs. The aim of this research is to analyse the activities of CDC's in the context of helping to meet the needs of children at risk, who are also sometimes described in scientific literature as disadvantaged children. It is obvious that children growing within social risk families often do not have or have insufficient necessary skills-to communicate, to discover, to create. This significantly complicates the realization of needs of those children growing in families at risk or so called disadvantaged families. The social services in day care centres are organized for the best interests of such families. These institutions aim at giving the opportunities to meet the needs of children by creating the conditions to learn, create, spend their leisure time, and engage in a favourite activity.

Highlights

At the end of 2017 over 10 000 families were found to be at risk in Lithuania, and more than 21 000 children growing up in these families
One can imagine that it can be around 40 000 children and adults that are distinguished as people at risk, and this is the total population of the 7th biggest town in Lithuania – Marijampole
Numerous services provided for adults at risk proved to be of very little effectiveness and it is often facing difficulties due to the low motivation of such people to receive services, while the children are easier to reach and affect by both governmental and nongovernmental organizations performing in the area of social welfare

Summary

Introduction

At the end of 2017 over 10 000 families were found to be at risk in Lithuania, and more than 21 000 children growing up in these families. The study of complex services provided in children day care centres in Lithuania was directed towards the prevention of social problems of families and children at risk. It had been very fragmented, and the capacity of the complex services in meeting the needs of children in the centre generally has not been studied. The subject was analysed in the following aspects: the capacities to meet the needs of children at risk in day care centres through the number of different activities and types of services; and the benefits or complex services brought to the disadvantaged families and children

Objectives

The needs of children of social risk families

The functions of CDC’s

The empirical data analysis

Findings

Conclusions