Background Despite a global policy push toward the advancement of family- and community-based care, residential care for children and youth remains a relevant and highly utilized out-of-home care option in many countries, fulfilling functions of care and accommodation as well as education and treatment. Objective As part of a larger project involving five European countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain), the objective was “to map” the context and content of residential care in each country, thereby building a foundation for meaningful comparisons and deepened understanding of each system’s inherent logic. Within the context of global deinstitutionalization efforts, the study also aimed to understand factors that hinder or enhance the transformation of residential care. Method Using an embedded multiple-case design, data was gathered by each country on its residential care macro context as well as salient variables related to three units of analysis–residential care system/program features, residential care training and personnel, characteristics of youth. Cross-case synthesis was used to summarize and compare cases across relevant dimensions. Results The analysis highlighted areas of overlap and singularity, particularly with regard to utilization rates, concepts and methods, workforce professionalization, and characteristics of youth. Conclusions Findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how residential care continues to be viewed and utilized in some countries, challenging the ‘residential-care-as-a-last-resort-only’ rhetoric that is currently dominating the discourse on residential care. It further provides an understanding of historical and sociocultural factors that need to be considered when trying to transform services for children, youth, and their families.

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The article analyses the aspects of sexual education of adolescents with a moderate intellectual disability in the family and the needs for the realisation of the role of mothers as educators. The experiences of mothers are revealed in order to understand the experiences of mothers, reactions towards the sexual maturation of the adolescents, educational efforts in the family, the search for assistance. The answers to the following problematic questions are sought: What experiences, which are related to the sexual maturation of the adolescents and sexual education in the family, do mothers experience? What are the efforts and assistance search of mothers as sexuality educators in the family? 8 mothers, who are bringing up children with a moderate intellect disability, participated in the study. To collect the data, the method of focus group discussion was employed, qualitative content analysis was used for the data analysis. Sexual education of the adolescents with a moderate intellectual disability in the family cause discomfort and inconvenience to the mothers, they experience doubts, confusion, a burden, when performing the role of a sexual educator. Their efforts, at the time of the initiation educational conversations on such themes as the dignity of a girl, the maintenance of sexual, romantic, love relationships, childbearing and parental responsibilities with the adolescent in a family environment, are cautious and unassertive. The needs for psychological and educational preparedness of the mothers to perform the role of a sexual educator are revealed: the understanding of personal reactions to the sexual maturation of the adolescents and seksual behavior, the acquisition of confidence to develop social and self-expression skills of the adolescents with a disability, value-related attitudes regarding family ethics, a man and a woman love, friendship, family relationships. The perspective of social assistance for the mothers is related to the expansion of the possibilities for their self-realization, professional career, leisure time and relief and the promotion of the participation of their family in community activities.

This article analyzes one of the most important and, simultaneously, the most problematic factors in the development of adult education as the implementation quality of Non-formal Adult Education (hereinafter NAE) at the local government level. The aim of this article is to reveal the understanding of Lithuanian municipal non-formal adult education coordinators about improving the quality of non-formal adult education services. The study has centered on a focus group (12 people) in which Lithuanian non-formal adult education coordinators from different municipalities discussed and shared their diverse opinions. According to the focus group participants, the quality assessment of educational services in local communities is required by the institutions or foundations financing the services, which at the same time indicate the criteria for assessing the quality of services and their fulfillment when reporting on the implementation of educational services. According to the participants of the study, Lithuanian municipalities should have more power in decision making on planning educational programs and services to meet the needs of the local population; they should expect stable funding guarantees from state institutions, which must first and foremost be interested in improving non-formal education services quality assessment.

Straipsnyje, naudojant klausimyną Bendravimo šeimoje apie lytiškumą koeficientas (The Family Sex Communication Quotient, FSCQ), siekiama atskleisti paauglių bendravimo su tėvais lytiškumo temomis aspektus ir kaip tai susiję su paauglių suvokiamu komfortu, informacijos ir tėvų vaidmens svarbos suvokimu. Nustatyta, kad paauglių bendravimo su tėvais lytiškumo temomis lygis yra vidutiniškas ir kad paaugliai labiau linkę šiais klausimais bendrauti su motinomis.