The Baldovan Institution Abuse Inquiry: a forgotten scandal.

In this paper, I resurrect a long-forgotten inquiry into abuse and maladministration at an institution for people with learning disabilities, the Baldovan Institution near Dundee, that has lain buried in the archives for the past 60 years. I contrast the response to it with the very different response to the similar revelations of the Ely Hospital Inquiry more than a decade later. Whereas Ely opened up the institutional sector to greater public scrutiny and brought with it a formal commitment from the government to shift the balance of care away from the long-term hospital, Baldovan produced recommendations that were limited to the institution and had no impact on public policy or institutional practice. I consider the reasons for this and its implications.

["No pleasant side can be discovered in this young boy"--aspects of "child euthanasia" in Silesia]. / "Irgend eine angenehme Seite ist bei dem Jungen nicht zu entdecken"--Aspekte der "Kindereuthanasie" in Schlesien.

Several thousand children also fell victim to the murder committed on physically or mentally handicapped persons under the term "euthanasia" during Nazi times. While at first they were included in the killings administered under "Action T4", beginning in 1941 the process of selection and murder was relocated to specialized "child departments" developed just for this purpose. Under the auspices of the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses (Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden) a network expanded with the objective of screening children and youth that did not seem fit and supportable for society and future generations. Care and educational institutions increasingly came into the center of attention. The primarily pedagogically motivated intent of removing children and youth from a harmful environment could very easily and quickly turn into organized murder. An example of this is Peter A. from Görlitz, who was ten years of age at the time of his murder. His path from his family to the corrective care that ultimately lead to his commitment into the specialized "child department" in Loben took less than half a year. His right to life was denied by Elisabeth Hecker, the director of the youth psychiatric clinic, as a result of labeling him as disruptive and useless.

Residential Institutions Redress Board of the Irish Government 2002-2018.

In 1999, the Irish Government commissioned a report into the abuse of children who were in the care of facilities managed and run under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church in the Irish Republic in the 1940s and 1950s. It reported in 2009. A Redress Board was set up to investigate and compensate claimants who were abused physically and mentally as children when living in these facilities. The Board sat for 16 years. In total, 16,650 applications were processed with awards worth €970 million. Of these, 1069 applications were withdrawn, refused or had a nil award. This report on work of the Commission and the Board derives from the histories given and the expert assessment of 19 claimants for compensation. Their ages ranged between 47 and 72 years at the time of the expert's assessment.

Remaking collective knowledge: An analysis of the complex and multiple effects of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse.

This article provides an overview and critical analysis of inquiries into historical institutional child abuse and examines their multiple functions and complex effects. The article takes a broadly international view but focuses primarily on Australia, the UK and Ireland, jurisdictions in which there have been major national inquiries. Drawing on sociological and other social science literature, it begins by considering the forms, functions, and purposes of inquiries. An overview of emergent concerns with institutional abuse in the 1980s and 1990s is then provided, followed by an examination of the response of many governments since that time in establishing inquiries. Key findings and recommendations are considered. The final sections of the article explore the evaluation of inquiries, both during their operation and in their aftermath. Policy change and legislative reform are discussed but the focus is on aspects often underplayed or overlooked, including an inquiry's credibility, its role in processes of knowledge production, and the part it plays in producing social and cultural shifts. In the context of growing numbers of inquiries across Western democracies, including the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, it is argued that grasping the complexity of the inquiry mechanism, with its inherent tensions and its multiple effects, is crucial to evaluating inquiry outcomes.

The Bath Idiot and Imbecile Institution.

The Bath Institution for Idiot Children and those of Weak Intellect was founded in 1846 by Miss Charlotte White, and opened in April 1846 in two rooms with a resident matron and three pupils. It was unique amongst the Idiot Asylums in being managed by women. In time it became similar to any small private idiot home but the Commissioners in Lunacy forced its reform, without registering it as an idiot asylum. It was taken over by the Bath Municipal Charity Trustees. It eventually became an endowed school, licensed by the Board of Control. This paper describes its history and its eventual control by the Lunacy Commission.

The Evora foundlings between the 16th and the 19th century: the Portuguese public welfare system under analysis.

By the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese State imposed on local powers the obligation to bring up and take care of foundlings. However, with the creation of the Misericórdia fraternities all over the country, the municipalities transferred the assistance of the children to those charities, with the promise of economic support. Nonetheless, in spite of the State "interest", the concern of local powers and the care provided by the Misericórdias, the results were tragic for the children. In this paper I intend to provide a summary about the welfare services for foundlings in Portugal, and to study the assistance that was given to them in the city of Evora.

Loneliness in infancy: Harry Harlow, John Bowlby and issues of separation.

In this contribution, the authors give an overview of the different studies on the effect of separation and deprivation that drew the attention of many in the 1940s and 1950s. Both Harlow and Bowlby were exposed to and influenced by these different studies on the so called 'hospitalization' effect. The work of Bakwin, Goldfarb, Spitz, and others is discussed and attention is drawn to films that were used to support new ideas on the effects of maternal deprivation.

Voices from the past: early institutional experience of children with disabilities--the case of Scotland.

In the countries of the western world, the institutional option for confining and endeavouring to 'correct' traits and attributes of people who did not conform to a rising consciousness of 'normalcy' developed rapidly during the 19th century. Scotland, a small, but rapidly urbanizing and industrializing country on the edge of Europe, was not an exception, but in its adoption of the institutional option for children with disabilities, its responses and objectives to different forms of impairment followed an uneven path. This article considers the reason for this erratic response, and the varied objectives of those responses, in the context of different forms of impairment and the differing interests of those with a professional or philanthropic involvement. The responses of some of the children directly affected are also considered.

[Princess Eugénie and her work for the benefit of disabled children]. / Prinsessan Eugénie och hennes insatser för vanföra barn.

Princess Eugénie was the daughter of the Swedish-Norwegian king Oscar I. She had a very good education; her favourite subjects were art and music. In the Spring of 1852, when she was 22 years old, she was stricken with a severe disease, and she was paralysed in one leg. During her illness she underwent a religious crisis. After recovering, her main interest was to assist poor and incurably ill children. Her name is above all associated with the Home of Eugénie (Eugenia-hemmet) in Stockholm, which was opened in 1886. This home accommodated at this time 45 children, but very soon the number increased. According to the regulations, the Home of Eugénie was to become a real home for these children. They were allowed to stay there until the age of 15, and to get a complete medical attention. They were also to receive an education as well as a vocational training. The princess put down most of her interest and her energy in the home. She knew all the children, started fundraising in aid for them. She herself donated them all her earnings. She even made porcelaine figurines which were spread and sold in big numbers. She died in 1889.

Evolution of social services for children with emotional disorders.

In this article, the authors examine the evolution of America's varied and often conflicting responses to the needs of its children--more specifically, the historical responses to dependent, neglected, and emotionally disordered children. The authors discuss America's historical ambivalence about whether to institutionalize children or keep them with their families, the relationship between social work professionals and clients, and the lessons that can be learned and applied to current practice. The analysis suggests that social work challenge some of the assumptions upon which prior service and advocacy efforts have been based. The magnitude of the current service system problems warrants a family-centered advocacy stance aimed at improving community-based services. This approach could free social workers to operationalize key values of the profession.