Institutions
Institutions working with anthroposophical curative education and social therapy are services available to the public. They are open to all children, and adults regardless of belief, religious conviction or ethnic considerations.
In most countries of the world, they are a part of the social and state supported systems in the sphere of social work. They are a part of the network of bodies carrying the work for people with disability.
The principal aim is the personal support and care for the individual. Working together with the relatives of the person concerned as also the interdisciplinary cooperation between the specialists involved.
The institutions are constituted as legal persons, which are bound together as members of local and international associations.
Opportunities in Social Therapy and Curative Education
Curative Education
Early childhood counselling
From the very early years, sometimes even in the first months of life, decisive indications can be given for helping children with developmental disabilities or with retarded development. Besides the professional special educational, medical or therapeutic assistance, the counselling and support of the parents is an important factor.
Special education at kindergarten level and integrated kindergartens
The curative care of the child happens in community with other children. Stimulation for the development of the child originates in a structured environment that offers, for instance, curative play and therapeutic care.
Special schools, schools with small classes, integrated schools
The special schools offer a curriculum on the basis of Waldorf Education. This includes a content adapted to the age of the child, an intense involvement with each subject through teaching in modules, and learning through alternating between community and individual instruction. It includes medical and therapeutic care. There are Special Schools available based on a variety of needs and principles; as special day schools, as schools with small classes, as schools within the framework of a home, and as integrated schools.
School Communities, Homes with schools, Institutions for Children with special needs
These are for children who, because of their family or social circumstances, require continuous care, support and a structure of living. Here their living environment (home), school and therapy work hand in hand in a functioning social and methodological approach
Ambulatory special education
By this means children with developmental problems, problems in schooling, and psychological problems are cared for with the aim of letting them continue to live in the family and be schooled in their usual school or kindergarten.
Social Therapy
Communities for Adults
These offer a total living environment in which living, working, free time and cultural activities are all included. Many of these institutions are communities in which those who are and those who are not disabled live together. Functioning as a way of life in themselves, they have taken on the task of networking as a subsystem within their worldly environment, but particularly also to support the individual needs and circumstances of their inhabitants. You will find these institutions both in urban and rural settings.
Workshops and Sheltered Employment
These initiatives enable people to work on the manufacture of products that combine aesthetic value with a practical function, and where the manufacturing process is geared to the needs of those who do the work. They enable the co-workers to become a social organism. Besides the different areas of production, there are also various therapies and programs for further education on offer.
Living communities and supervised living
These combine support in independent life in an own home with living in a small community with others, who also want and are able to live more independently. They can find individual and social support in supervised living.
Besides the work for people with disability, there are also services for those suffering from addictions, social psychiatry, and other fields of social work.
Finding an appropriate institution
Contact information can be found in the international directory of Anthroposophical institutions for Curative education and social therapy.