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Denmark mix ill and criminal youth

8/5/2012

It is with great concern that we have learned that Denmark has started to mix
minors who commit crimes with minor who just happen to suffer from mental
illnesses.

In the case of Amalia Pape an odd and dangerous pattern can be seen. The now
16 year old girl was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. Normally ODD is not a
recognized illness. Most professionals deem this particular diagnose as a kind
of mess meant to put a name on normal teenage behavior.

The girl was living at a group home placed there with the approval by her
family when she was 12 years old. For no particular reason the authorities
suddenly send her home and claimed she was cured. However at it turned out, she
was not. Her family asked for help and the only option the authorities had was
not her old group home but instead a department of "Grenen", which is a maximum
security youth facility in Jutland.

Here the girl would live much like the other youth placed at the facility for
a number of reasons like armed robbery or street gang participation. It doesn't
sound like the right option for treatment of her illness.

But this was the only option the authorities could offer and when her family
denied participating in her placement, the authorities took her by force.

So Amalia Pape is now living in a criminal environment. Her contact with her
family is restricted very much like she was imprisoned. It is a sad turn-out for
a girl and a family reaching out for help. It is an embarrassment for
Denmark.

Source:
16-årig med psykiatrisk lidelse tvangsfjernet og indsat blandt kriminelle (About the case in Danish language from a local newspaper)

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Cheap labor - reality for children in foster care in Sweden

11/23/2011

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A report ordered by the town of Eskilstuna did show that many of the children placed in the custody of the state between 1983 and 1986 ended up being used as cheap labor instead of getting better care.

We might ask why the state did not ensure that they didn't end up living under so poor condition that the removal from their birth parents did not improve their living standards.

We also might ask if the authorities are wondering whether is time to start monitoring the conditions in the foster families.

All these questions and we do know that we will not get an answer to them because children placed in foster care are troubled youth which you do best in forgetting once they have been placed at families living far out in the forests.

Source:
Ari Niemi, 33: Fosterfamiljen använde oss som arbetskraft (AftonBladet)

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Awful habit

9/22/2011

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Meeting a young woman - even a teenage girl - where the breasts are developing is a temptation for every man. Sometime the urge to touch them and feel how firm they are can become too much.

And by nature this urge is limited for most fathers’ biological offspring, which is a good thing.

However the role of a father in a foster family can be too much for some men and in Sweden such a man had a lot of children in foster care before his wife became tired of him running around a touch the breasts of the teenage girls the parents had in foster care. She pressed charges against him.

We might ask: Why wasn't it discovered before? The answer is simple. Children in need are in many cultures thought of as troubled youth. You tend not to believe them like the Danish social worker Gitte Blume didn't trust 3 girls when they explained about alleged sexual abuse. It took years before the foster parent was brought to justice.

Sources:
Fosterpappa åtalas för övergrepp (AftonBladet)

Skælskør: Tilsynet overså rædselshus (Ekstra-Bladet)

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Are abuse investigated in the Swedish foster care system?

8/2/2011

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You may answer: Of course!

At it should be expected that such a serious accusation always should result in an investigation.

But this is rarely the case!

Out of 89 cases where the foster child reported alleged abuse only 1 case ended in the termination of the status as foster parents. In many cases the report is filed and the archived.

That is not acceptable when taken into consideration that the state placed these children at the very foster families because the birth parents allegedly did a poor job as parents.

Sweden should demand higher standards and ask that all cases are investigated by the police. Only then would Sweden be able to claim that it as a country acts in the best interest of the children.

Source:
89 misstänkta övergrepp – bara en familj förbjöds att ta nya fosterbarn (AftonBladet)

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The Swedish foster care system - not something to admire

7/8/2011

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Abroad several countries seem to view the foster care system in Sweden as one of the best.

However we are talking of a flawed system. The system functions something like placeing at-risk children at families living very far from the larger towns and then leave them there where they cannot interact with other at-risk teenagers.

It is a kind of positive peer culture system where there is very few humans to talk with at all. The risk is that the isolation in the forest areas might cure the children of choosing a criminal future, but at a prize where they don't learn to interact with larger social masses forcing them to remain living outside the cities.

As the article mentions below there are few demands put upon parents who want to be foster parents, which place the children at risk of abuse in the hands of the foster parents. Oversight and supervision from the authorities are almost entirely left out due to the huge distances.

We will publish a number of articles about the dysfuntional foster care system in Sweden so other countries may choose a different path which actually saves children.

Source:
Vad krävs för att få bli fosterfamilj? (AftonBladet)

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Article from Denmark confirms international trend

3/26/2011

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A study by the John Hopkins University children in foster care risk being subjected to sexual abuse in a much higher degree than children, who live with their family.

This study was confirmed by a survey conducted in conjunction with a Baltimore lawsuit. Trudy Festinger, head of the Department of Research at the New York University School of Social Work confirmed the negative trend.
But also in Denmark headlines speak of this risk. Still Denmark continues to place more children in foster care than other Nordic countries like Norway and Sweden.

Some professionals tried to defend the higher level of children in foster care by claiming that the level of supervision of the foster parents and group homes are far better than in any other country in the world. However this has not stopped scandals like the Mern foster care scandal from appearing.

The only solution to keep the children safe is to improve the preventive work in the families. In Denmark where social workers basically built their careers on getting cases where they can help their colleges who supervise placements to foster parents or group homes, shifting focus to preventive work in the families properly will demand a new generation of social workers as the culture inside the department of social services will be subjected to a 100 percent conversion in order to achieve such a new strategy.

Sources:
Sexual Abuse: An Epidemic in Foster Care Settings? (HG Legal directory, by Orlow, Orlow % Orlow)
A Critical Look At The Foster Care System: How Widespread a Problem? (Lifting the Veil, by Rick Thomas)
Mern Foster Care Scandal (Fornits Wiki Database)
Børn krænker hinanden sexuelt (Nordjyske Tidende, by Kirstine Christensen, article in Danish language)

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Denmark mix ill and criminal youth

Cheap labor - reality for children in foster care in Sweden

Awful habit

Are abuse investigated in the Swedish foster care system?

The Swedish foster care system - not something to admire

Article from Denmark confirms international trend

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