Child and youth welfare facilities
crisis centres would be to expand non-residential risk assessments as well as
increasing programmes in the area of non-residential support, as these are
also not always directly available when needed and children sometimes have
to stay longer in the crisis centre than is necessary for assessment. The NPM
has also already recommended the provision of a crisis centre for minors with
psychiatric diagnoses.
Anticipated relief did not
materialise
Municipal department MA 11 anticipated an improvement of this situation
that has been criticised by the NPM for years through regionalisation within
the framework of the structural reform. In cooperation with private owners
and operators, 70 new follow-up care places with different focuses were
created in the past two years, and the non-residential support programme was
also expanded. However, these measures are still insufficient. The situation
is strained, in particular, in districts where more residential space has been
created in recent years. The City of Vienna also announced the expansion
of crisis de-escalation places, socio-therapeutic and socio-psychiatric care
units as well as non-residential programmes in 2020. These projects should be
implemented as quickly as possible in order to finally effect sustained relief of
the crisis centres.
Staff turnover due to
high stress levels
Commission 5 identified another problem, notably that predominantly job
starters work in the crisis centre who only stay a few years due to the high
workload. The increased workload is compensated with an allowance that is,
however, very low and bears no relation to the challenges faced by the social
pedagogues. An increase in the allowance could reduce the staff turnover.
Crisis placeson the
ground of a large facility
In Burgenland, the new regulation enabled the opportunity for setting up new
crisis centres. To date, however, only six crisis de-escalation places have been
established in a residential group on the grounds of a large facility and the
appointment of crisis foster parents announced. The NPM is critical of crisis deescalation places on the grounds of a large facility for several reasons. During
the crisis assessment, children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable and
open to negative influences from peers. The group dynamics in large facilities
exacerbate the problem of children in a crisis whereby both the children
undergoing assessment and the other children and adolescents are at risk. The
staff does not have a sufficient relationship with the children in a crisis to be
able to counter these dynamics. This is the reason why Vienna started moving
crisis places from existing facilities and creating crisis centres 25 years ago.
Dedicated crisis centre
required for Burgenland
The NPM thus urgently recommended Burgenland to set up a crisis centre at a
dedicated location too. The NPM also criticises that in Burgenland currently it
is only possible to accept children and adolescents in crisis places if measures
are taken to avert imminent danger. If there is no imminent danger or the
legal guardians consent to out-of-home care, the children and adolescents
are placed in the care facility without assessment and diagnosis. This also
explains the very low demand for crisis places compared to the rest of Austria.
Such an interpretation of the regulation does not comply with the legislator’s
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