ABSTRACT
A considerable number of factors play their part in determining how the individual experiences the end of a stay in an institution: whether admission was initially for protection or for treatment, for instance, or rehabilitation, or containment, restriction, or imprisonment. Similarly, the length of stay will be influential: leaving psychiatric hospital after a few days of enforced observation and treatment will be a very different experience from leaving a children’s home after several years having established a close relationship with residential staff. Before proceeding to a more general discussion we will look at some insights into this experience from personal records and statements, and from case studies. The great majority of these are from the child care setting, and it is possible to distinguish reflections on the anticipation of leaving from records of the actual separation and the readjustment period.
