Child and youth welfare facilities XX  Child and youth welfare institutions must deal with the conditions that the Nursing and Residential Homes Residence Act requires for the permissible restriction of freedom, and they should actively seek cooperation with the representatives of the residents. XX  Training on the new legal requirements is essential. 2.3.5 Alarming personnel situation Major problems with fluctuation The NPM already reported in recent years about problems in recruiting personnel at the facilities. Vacancies are filled only temporarily or not at all. For the staff this means that they have to take on additional work. The consequence is work overload resulting in resignations. This personnel situation has a negative impact on the care situation of the minors. Frequent changes of personnel is enormous stress factor Frequent breaks in relationships are nearly always a very stressful experience for the children and adolescents. During the commissions’ visits, when asked what is negative in the shared accommodation, minors often mentioned the loss of caregivers. The frequent change of caregivers in a care facility is deemed highly critical. It can be assumed that minors whose original family bond is unsecure are subjected to additional risk factors that can intensify with high levels of personnel fluctuation. Psychological resilience research investigated why some children cope with severe stress better than others. They reached the conclusion that a stable relationship to a reliable and loving adult is the most important “protection factor” in alleviating the worst consequences of severe stress. The frequent change of personnel is thus a stress factor for children who are traumatised from the loss of trusted persons. This is ultimately reflected in the fact that many of these children are bound to child and adolescent psychiatry and regularly take psychotropic medication. Inadequate induction training When there is shortage of personnel, it is often not possible to train in new staff. They are often left alone after a short time and work some night shifts without any support. Sometimes two or more groups of residents are merged at night or at the weekend, and the young employees without any work experience are left alone with these combined group set-ups and minors whom they do not know. Change in the care team thus happens, when new employees, who are very dedicated at the beginning, cannot cope with this high stress level and leave. Facilities do not seem to be able to break out of this vicious circle if they already had a bad reputation in the sector due to frequent staff shortages. The situation is exacerbated if it takes a long time to fill vacant positions (in one case a year). Facilities need support Problems like these were highlighted by the commissions in previous years. The NPM therefore requested information from all of the Laender to support 70

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