The Abandonment of Children with 0-3 years in Romania – Institutionalization and Issues

In the context of this paper, the term abandon refers to a situation in which the child is left by his parents in hospitals or other institutions and different places. It can be a period of several days or even years in which parents are not interested in the concrete situation of their children and do not visit them. In Romania, in 2013, according to the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection, there were a significant number of children abandoned in maternities, respectively 915, representing 63% from all children abandoned in hospitals. Facing poverty, exacerbated by the economic crisis, many parents have understood to respond to this situation by not assuming the role of a parent and they abandoned their own child. Abandonment due to poverty is not a new phenomenon and was covered immediately after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, when images with institutionalized children revealed the amplitude and consequences of the phenomenon. The child protection policy focused in the years following the revolution to the deinstitutionalization, but even today there are parents who leave their children in the care of hospitals and various social institutions. Studies have revealed adverse effects on psychological development and social integration of abandoned or institutionalized children, and therefore it is necessary to educate parents to identify alternatives to abandonment. Abandon prevention policies may be found in subsequent years increasing number of centers specialized in working with parents/mother and child, like maternal centers, day centers, centers/offices for counseling parents and children, and the success of these policies mean steady decrease in the number of children abandoned in hospitals or placed in foster care.