Summary: | 碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 社會工作學系碩士班 === 106 === Abstract
“Home” is the pursuit of a sense of belonging deep inside everyone’s heart. Women who have suffered family trauma leave their family of orientation and undergo long-term residential placement to reconstruct the image of “home”. By the end of their stay in the residential care facilities, the girls who underwent placement must leave the residential care facilities to find their “home”, which raises the issues of whether things will turn out fine, how the girls achieve a sense of belonging throughout the course of seeking a home, how the girls who fail to return to their family of origin manage to live in the community, and if the residential placement system as the last safety net in the social welfare system is sufficient. The qualitative research method was adopted in this study. Through in-depth interviews, an insight was gained into adult females’ interpretation and idea of “home” after they underwent residential placement, and the plights encountered by the girls and their faith to cope after leaving the residential care facilities were explored. Three interviewers were invited to share their life stories that were full of power and resilience. The research results show that:
1. Throughout the course of adult females’ altered “sense of home” after leaving the residential care facilities, they experience: “the family of orientation’s attitude towards home”, “the experience of home in the residential care facilities”, and “expectations and anticipations for their future home”.
2. The adult females having to leave the residential care facilities experienced the feel of leaving home again. Common challenges encountered over the process of establishing one’s own home include: “inadequate follow-up resources”, “limited work choices”, “ambiguous demarcation of the family of orientation”, difficulty in finding a balance between academic studies and life”, “difficulties in gaining internal acceptance and recognition. The coping measures include: the resilience of placement girls, learning and experience in the residential care facilities, and continued management of the residential care facilities to support and accompany women leaving the residential care facilities.
3. Every woman interpreted the meaning of “family” differently. Some maintained contact with their family but learned to keep their distance to maintain their current life. Regardless of the reason for their placement, the women all longed to have and create a home of their own in the future.
Based on the research results, the researcher put forward recommendations targeting the county and city governments, residential care facilities, school, and communities. Overall, it is suggested that the county and city governments establish family and work treatment principles in collaboration with the residential care facilities. The residential care facilities should emphasize the rights of children and adolescents and provide relational management that gives them a sense of home; in terms of schooling, assistance should be provided to adolescents in residential placement in the form of school subsidies, while communities should establish a friendly adolescent resources network to jointly assist children who have left their homes in gaining a sense of belonging that feels like home.
Keywords: residential placement, female, a sense of home
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