Thousands of demonstrators are expected in a mass protest by youth care workers today. At the Malieveld in The Hague they protest against understaffing, waiting lists and especially children who are at risk because of a lack of care. They also stop working 24 hours throughout the Netherlands. “Welcome to the industry that’s been on fire for seven years now.”
The FNV trade union has recently collected stories from the sector that everyone knows is in a deplorable state: youth care. The experiences outline why the biggest action in the history of youth care seems to be taking place today, with a major strike and thousands of demonstrators. The stories are presented to State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health, Welfare and Sport).
He will read about the health care psychologist who tells how she naturally wants to offer specialist help to children, but before the day begins, she is drowning in e-mails that she has to deal with. Before the weekend, she left 120 unread emails. On Monday there are 200, she describes. In the hour before her working day officially starts, she can handle five emails and four administrative tasks.
Not easy
It is also not easy for another employee in youth care to account for all the hours she works – recently an obligation. ‘For a number of months we have even been told that we have to write 100 percent of our time. That means that on average I fill my agenda for half an hour to an hour a day with half and fifteen minutes. Called in 15 minutes with a mother who has some questions about school and the therapy her daughter is taking? fill in a quarter of an hour; location, form of help, what did you do, which client? Click.’ It’s a lot of clicks, every day.
And that in a sector that has been ‘on fire for seven years’, according to the FNV. It’s not going well. Waiting lists have grown to such an extent that children sometimes have nowhere to go. ‘It is often impossible to find a place for a young person, especially when they are a bit older and the problems increase.’ Finding a good place for a sexually abused child over the age of 10 is impossible. ‘They are sometimes still placed in a family home, but you won’t find a foster family.’
Without a suitable place and therefore appropriate help, employees often see children who should actually be helped worse. “I said today that we’re all going to screw this girl up. She is left to her own devices.’
Different municipalities
Meanwhile, providers have to do business with all kinds of different municipalities, all of which have their own requirements and budgets. If they already have a budget. For example, the horse therapy that helps a girl with her major problems is not reimbursed at one municipality, but suddenly becomes within reach thanks to a move to another place. But that solution is not available for everyone, as it turns out in a class in special education. One boy does get the help he needs, because there is a budget available. In the municipality where his classmate lives, it is ‘unfortunately peanut butter’. There is no money to pay for his treatment.
For example, there is struggle and some employees also see how families lose trust. Because they are not heard and because they do not receive the right help. Because rescuers keep changing or don’t show their faces at all. The FNV calls what is happening a ‘silent shame’. ‘Welcome to the sector that has been on fire for seven years now’ are the words used to introduce the stories.
No news
It is not news, even juvenile judges and youth care themselves have sounded the alarm – and not once. However, it has not gotten any better in recent years. Parents, young people themselves, youth lawyers and politicians also saw this, who will also be present today. And mother Angelique Mens. She would rather have been in court today, to fight against the forced out-of-home placement that threatens her child. But due to the strike, today’s trial was suddenly canceled on Friday.
While the previous lawsuit was so profound, and caused fear in Angelique’s family. Just before the hearing, the supervising youth guardian suddenly told Angelique’s daughter that the girl wouldn’t go home if it was up to him. Instead of with the family member where the child now resides on a voluntary basis, she should go to an institution. The judge ultimately found that this would be too traumatic, as appears from the judgment that was passed, and that there was no reason to approve such an emergency home placement. Angelique was thereby harmed in her rights. But the kids didn’t know that yet when they banged on the door in the hallway near the courtroom, afraid of losing their family.
juvenile guardian
Maybe he’s there too, that youth guardian, one in a row of many. “I had seven guardians in nine months. Three of them have been there. The rest never came to my house,” says Mens. “And all because one of my children had behavioral problems, and I called for help.” First at the Youth and Family Center, later youth care came into play. That eventually even ensured that her daughter was placed out of the house without behavioral problems. ,,I had just had chemotherapy, when I signed sick for a voluntary out-of-home placement. I thought it was my other child child, I was not strong enough at the time to see what happened.”
Now she is, and she is one of the bizarre stories of parents, which are not in the document of the FNV, which is being presented today. But she is part of the group that is hit hardest: the families and especially children who do not receive the right help. And that is what we are fighting for today.
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