Defenseless and relinquished youngsters languish in unsuitable hospitals for a substantial length of your time in Hellenic Republic, nevertheless after they don't seem to be sick. a replacement tutelage system might supply an answer, but it remains deficient.
In the anteroom of Athens' Aghia Sofia Pediatric Hospital, a youthful female NGO volunteer is taking a kid for a stroll. He looks to associate with five and appears to have a mellow disability. She tries to engage him by getting him to play with a public telephone. It seems to work; he is smiling as he listens in on the disengaged line.
He is one of around 30 children who are as of now stranded in the hospital, limited to the life of a patient, without really needing hospitalization. Some have been relinquished by their parents. Others are there because a public prosecutor has requested their expulsion from their families, following allegations of disregard or abuse.
Public prosecutors in Greece have been using hospitals to oblige such children for a long time — at any rate 25 years, as indicated by Sofia Konstantelia, leader of the Welfare Center of Attica Prefecture.
In spite of the fact that the hospital staff cares for the children, and volunteers from NGOs willingly volunteer to offer enthusiastic support, there is wide understanding among experts that a hospital is not prepared to deal with such cases, especially for delayed periods.
"I confronted this issue myself," Xeni Dimitriou, boss prosecutor for the Greek Supreme Court, said, when we asked her about how widespread this training is. "When I was a public prosecutor for minors, and I didn't have anyplace to put the child, our lone solution was, where the child would, regardless, need to go so as to be analyzed. Children, be that as it may, stayed there for significant lots, and this is still going on today, in spite of the fact that to a smaller degree."
The 'hospital children'
In the past, in excess of 200 children — whose ages run from little child to young person — experienced expanded hospital imprisonment in a single year. The head of Aghia Sofia Hospital's Social Services, Xenia Apostola, disclosed to us that the number spiked during the early years of the Greek crisis. Today, as per the Greek Union of Public Hospital Employees, more than 70 children are housed in hospitals in and around Athens.
Some of these children spend more than six months in the hospital before authorities can secure a spot in a children's home. For children with disabilities, the holding up period can be years. In one case that we had the option to affirm, a newborn child with a disability stayed in Aghia Sofia until it was three years old, while never leaving the structure. In another, a disabled child lived in the hospital for more than seven years, before being moved to a specialized institution.
Giorgos Nikolaidis, a psychiatrist and executive of the Council of Europe Lanzarote Committee, which monitors the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, believes that restricting children who are expelled from their families by prosecutors to hospitals is "characteristic of the absence of other, increasingly proper systems of child protection, such as crisis foster care."
In the last couple of months, protesting hospital workers have turned out to be increasingly vocal. Despite the fact that Apostola is speedy to say that "it's not the children's issue," workers' unions have whined that some of the adolescent children have been harassing and notwithstanding assaulting staff.
In response to the protests, services responsible for child protection offered incomplete solutions, such as the Welfare Center of Attica moving seven children, who were under four, to its facilities. The Ministry of Health focused on making new shelters, where all the "hospital children" would be moved before the finish of June, and which they revealed to us will start working in July.
Child protection falls short
Most experts, be that as it may, don't concur that new shelters for the children are a solution the legislature should be pursuing. Greece is one of the last countries in Europe where child protection services depend almost exclusively on institutions, or children's homes, worked by the state, the Greek Orthodox Church, or various NGOs.
Nikolaidis, who also heads the Mental Health Department of the Institute of Child Health, a semi-autonomous institution overseen by the Ministry of Health, questions why some officials insist in this case on steering child protection an inadequate and hurtful way. "The answer," he said, "most likely lies in organizing the interests of different groups, instead of the children's. The hospitals need to free their beds, some individuals need to secure contracts for the new shelters, authorities feel progressively good with having the children in a single spot."
"There are an excessive number of institutions as of now," Konstantelia agrees. She also believes that instead of children's homes, the solution lies in foster care.
In Greece, there is no uniform convention or expert on child protection, or even a lucid method for monitoring children in the system. There are hundreds of services across the nation, with divided mandates and responsibilities, and next to zero correspondence between them. Casual networks of participation between experts frequently step in to offset the direst consequences, yet cuts in budgets and personnel during the nation's financial crisis have barely made a difference.
Despite the fact that plans to update child protection services by successive governments in the past finished in disappointment, the present government has made strides that experts accept to be positive. A register where institutions — public or private — presently need to record all children in their care is in the works. "We have just started transferring our children's files to the register," Konstantelia let us know.
Foster parents needed
Another significant step was a new law on foster care, which will presently be administered through the new register. As indicated by a statement by the agent minister of social solidarity, Theano Fotiou, more than 130 applications have been recorded through the new system by prospective foster parents, and another 600 for long haul selection.
Progress is slow, nonetheless. Albeit all institutions are required to use the new register, there is no assurance that they will do as such rapidly. Furthermore, increasingly specialized forms of foster care — such as crisis and professional foster care — require entangled checking protocols that are still fragmented, as well as funds that have not yet been apportioned. It is misty how the snap general decision called for July 7 by the leader, Alexis Tsipras, will affect the execution of the new measures.
"I suppose charge is that the excellent resolution," Dimitriou says. "Foster oldsters oft have their faults like each alternative person, nevertheless it's still a family, it's specialised look after a toddler." She fears but, that Greek society isn't "open enough" to understand charge, nevertheless this might be modified through coaching. Right now, be that because it might, there's no correspondence crusade gone for increasing public awareness of the new charge system.
At the passageway to Aghia Sofia hospital, an older man in a wheelchair alongside a young lady, who seem to have been visiting a patient, are getting some air. A volunteer walks by them, escorting a kid of around 15 to a vehicle, pushing a truck with his belongings. The vehicle belongs to a NGO that runs children's homes. He looks stressed, and she tries to reassure him. For a minute, the eyes of the child meet those of the man in the wheelchair, with the sort of compassion that individuals create in such circumstances.
In the anteroom of Athens' Aghia Sofia Pediatric Hospital, a youthful female NGO volunteer is taking a kid for a stroll. He looks to associate with five and appears to have a mellow disability. She tries to engage him by getting him to play with a public telephone. It seems to work; he is smiling as he listens in on the disengaged line.
He is one of around 30 children who are as of now stranded in the hospital, limited to the life of a patient, without really needing hospitalization. Some have been relinquished by their parents. Others are there because a public prosecutor has requested their expulsion from their families, following allegations of disregard or abuse.
Public prosecutors in Greece have been using hospitals to oblige such children for a long time — at any rate 25 years, as indicated by Sofia Konstantelia, leader of the Welfare Center of Attica Prefecture.
In spite of the fact that the hospital staff cares for the children, and volunteers from NGOs willingly volunteer to offer enthusiastic support, there is wide understanding among experts that a hospital is not prepared to deal with such cases, especially for delayed periods.
"I confronted this issue myself," Xeni Dimitriou, boss prosecutor for the Greek Supreme Court, said, when we asked her about how widespread this training is. "When I was a public prosecutor for minors, and I didn't have anyplace to put the child, our lone solution was, where the child would, regardless, need to go so as to be analyzed. Children, be that as it may, stayed there for significant lots, and this is still going on today, in spite of the fact that to a smaller degree."
The 'hospital children'
In the past, in excess of 200 children — whose ages run from little child to young person — experienced expanded hospital imprisonment in a single year. The head of Aghia Sofia Hospital's Social Services, Xenia Apostola, disclosed to us that the number spiked during the early years of the Greek crisis. Today, as per the Greek Union of Public Hospital Employees, more than 70 children are housed in hospitals in and around Athens.
Some of these children spend more than six months in the hospital before authorities can secure a spot in a children's home. For children with disabilities, the holding up period can be years. In one case that we had the option to affirm, a newborn child with a disability stayed in Aghia Sofia until it was three years old, while never leaving the structure. In another, a disabled child lived in the hospital for more than seven years, before being moved to a specialized institution.
Giorgos Nikolaidis, a psychiatrist and executive of the Council of Europe Lanzarote Committee, which monitors the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, believes that restricting children who are expelled from their families by prosecutors to hospitals is "characteristic of the absence of other, increasingly proper systems of child protection, such as crisis foster care."
In the last couple of months, protesting hospital workers have turned out to be increasingly vocal. Despite the fact that Apostola is speedy to say that "it's not the children's issue," workers' unions have whined that some of the adolescent children have been harassing and notwithstanding assaulting staff.
In response to the protests, services responsible for child protection offered incomplete solutions, such as the Welfare Center of Attica moving seven children, who were under four, to its facilities. The Ministry of Health focused on making new shelters, where all the "hospital children" would be moved before the finish of June, and which they revealed to us will start working in July.
Child protection falls short
Most experts, be that as it may, don't concur that new shelters for the children are a solution the legislature should be pursuing. Greece is one of the last countries in Europe where child protection services depend almost exclusively on institutions, or children's homes, worked by the state, the Greek Orthodox Church, or various NGOs.
Nikolaidis, who also heads the Mental Health Department of the Institute of Child Health, a semi-autonomous institution overseen by the Ministry of Health, questions why some officials insist in this case on steering child protection an inadequate and hurtful way. "The answer," he said, "most likely lies in organizing the interests of different groups, instead of the children's. The hospitals need to free their beds, some individuals need to secure contracts for the new shelters, authorities feel progressively good with having the children in a single spot."
"There are an excessive number of institutions as of now," Konstantelia agrees. She also believes that instead of children's homes, the solution lies in foster care.
In Greece, there is no uniform convention or expert on child protection, or even a lucid method for monitoring children in the system. There are hundreds of services across the nation, with divided mandates and responsibilities, and next to zero correspondence between them. Casual networks of participation between experts frequently step in to offset the direst consequences, yet cuts in budgets and personnel during the nation's financial crisis have barely made a difference.
Despite the fact that plans to update child protection services by successive governments in the past finished in disappointment, the present government has made strides that experts accept to be positive. A register where institutions — public or private — presently need to record all children in their care is in the works. "We have just started transferring our children's files to the register," Konstantelia let us know.
Foster parents needed
Another significant step was a new law on foster care, which will presently be administered through the new register. As indicated by a statement by the agent minister of social solidarity, Theano Fotiou, more than 130 applications have been recorded through the new system by prospective foster parents, and another 600 for long haul selection.
Progress is slow, nonetheless. Albeit all institutions are required to use the new register, there is no assurance that they will do as such rapidly. Furthermore, increasingly specialized forms of foster care — such as crisis and professional foster care — require entangled checking protocols that are still fragmented, as well as funds that have not yet been apportioned. It is misty how the snap general decision called for July 7 by the leader, Alexis Tsipras, will affect the execution of the new measures.
"I suppose charge is that the excellent resolution," Dimitriou says. "Foster oldsters oft have their faults like each alternative person, nevertheless it's still a family, it's specialised look after a toddler." She fears but, that Greek society isn't "open enough" to understand charge, nevertheless this might be modified through coaching. Right now, be that because it might, there's no correspondence crusade gone for increasing public awareness of the new charge system.
At the passageway to Aghia Sofia hospital, an older man in a wheelchair alongside a young lady, who seem to have been visiting a patient, are getting some air. A volunteer walks by them, escorting a kid of around 15 to a vehicle, pushing a truck with his belongings. The vehicle belongs to a NGO that runs children's homes. He looks stressed, and she tries to reassure him. For a minute, the eyes of the child meet those of the man in the wheelchair, with the sort of compassion that individuals create in such circumstances.
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