A compound was an area in which Aboriginal people were confined within a town district. This concept was developed by Baldwin Spencer when he was Chief Protector of Aboriginals as a way of separating and controlling Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. Compounds were to be self-sufficient and Aboriginal people were expected to carry out…
Custodial Care describes a model that was historically used on many people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness. In a custodial care model, a person was not given any treatment to help them improve from their condition at admission. Many children with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals up to the 1960s suffered as a result…
The Community Support Hostel program was introduced in Western Australia in 1984 by the Department for Community Welfare. These hostels were for children and young people with complex needs who couldn’t be placed in foster care. They accommodated up to 8 children aged from 6 to 17. From 1987, community support hostels also accommodated children…
A Convalescent Home was a place where children were sent to rest and recover from illnesses, or after a stay in hospital. Sometimes the term was used to describe a home for women suffering from sexually transmitted infections (such institutions were also known as Lock Hospitals or Contagious Diseases Hospitals). Click here to see the…
A Community Unit was a smaller group residential care unit. This term was used in South Australia from the 1970s for longer term small group care. Community Units were to provide care and support for a range of children in State ‘care’ including young people on remand or children considered to be at risk. Some…
Children’s Home is a term commonly used during the period from the 1920s to the 1970s to describe children’s institutions, including orphanages. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Child (or young person) ‘in need of care and protection’ was a term introduced into legislation from around the 1950s to describe a child or young person admitted to the ‘care’ of the state. Formerly, the language used was ‘neglected child’. Other common terms were child or young person ‘in need of care’, ‘at risk’…
Congregate Care was a term used to describe the system in large institutions like orphanages, in which children were housed in dormitories, usually divided by age and gender, under the supervision of rostered staff. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
A Children’s Village usually comprised several cottage Homes, in which children were accommodated in the ‘care’ of cottage parents. The village model was an alternative to institutional, dormitory-style accommodation of children. This model of institutional care has its roots in the late nineteenth century (for example, Dr Thomas John Barnardo established a ‘Village Home for…
Cottage Home was a model of institutional ‘care’ which began in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. Along with boarding out, cottage home accommodation was seen as an alternative to large scale dormitory-style accommodation (although cottage homes could house up to 40 children). Some cottages used the ‘family cottage’ model where a group…
May 3, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
