Reader’s Opinion | I applied for rehabilitation money for my minor child, but he got a pension decision

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

I am sat in numerous seminars listening to the speeches of experts on preventing marginalization. Through my work, I myself have been involved in projects that prevent marginalization. However, nothing prepared me for the fact that my own child would be marginalized in a few years and end up retiring at the age of 16.

In my reflections, I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with our structures. Instead of working to prevent marginalization, the structures actually produce more marginalized people. Based on our own experiences, I highlight three factors that contribute to marginalization.

A child too much consultation: When my child’s depression started showing symptoms in the fourth grade, we quickly got to the children’s psychiatric outpatient clinic as clients. A doctor could be contacted if necessary, and the child met with a nurse regularly. When the situation really went into crisis after the coronavirus spring and we begged for some treatment for our child, the child’s right to self-determination was invoked at the youth psychiatric clinic (the child was in the opposition), and no therapy was started.

“

The structures produce marginalized young people.

How could any 13-year-old be able to decide on their own care, when many adults can’t? In the end, the child ended up in a psychiatric ward. Fortunately, we finally found a doctor who decided that this could not continue: the child entered Kela’s demanding medical rehabilitation five years after the symptoms began.

Responsibilities lost: No one seems to be responsible for matters related to school. In the opinion of Child Protection, the responsibility lies with the care agency, the care agency expects Child Protection to do something. In the network meetings organized at my request, the care agency, child protection and the representative of the education and training industry argued about whose responsibility it is and what should be done.

My child slept in his room for 2.5 years until he got a part-time teaching position this spring. But again, we are in a situation where no entity bears the responsibility. No one seems to be interested in the continuation of school in the fall. Would it be possible for the education and training sector to organize its ranks and make sure that the child and the guardian agree in time on how to organize schooling for a young person of compulsory school age?

Let’s surrender too soon: After many difficult years, my child is finally going to therapy and has been going to school this spring as well as he can. I applied for Kela youth rehabilitation allowance for my child, but the application was rejected. The child received a disability pension decision valid for the time being. It seems that it is easier for society to retire a young person who is difficult to rehabilitate than to research how to rehabilitate a smart young person into a tax-paying member of society.

The mother of the outcast

We publish the writing

exceptionally with a nickname.

The reader’s opinions are speeches written by HS readers, which are selected and delivered by the HS editors. You can leave an opinion piece or familiarize yourself with the principles of writing at the address www.hs.fi/kiryotamielipidekeisuis/.