Teenage girl abused in psychiatric institution with adults
A vulnerable 17-year-old girl was raped in a Flemish psychiatric institution by an adult patient, reported Het Nieuwsblad on Friday. Due to a lack of space in youth psychiatry, the girl ended up in a wing of a psychiatric institution where adult psychiatric patients also reside.
The young woman could no longer stay at home and had to appear before a youth court in East Flanders. Although a place in youth psychiatry is the best emergency solution, due to a lack of space, she ended up in the closed psychiatric institution in Sleidinge, a suburb of Evergem.
The girl ended up in a wing where adult psychiatric patients are also staying. The management of the institution acknowledges the lack of places, which is the underlying reason for the rape. Het Nieuwsblad writes that staff turnover has been high for years because of the complex job and the dire conditions.
"Such situations must absolutely be avoided in the future by creating sufficient capacity in youth psychiatry”
Federal minister of health Frank Vandenbroucke said that the Flemish inspection service will visit the institution to thoroughly investigate exactly what happened.
Flemish MP Toon Vandeurzen of the Christian Democratic party CD&V stated that “such situations must absolutely be avoided in the future by creating sufficient capacity in youth psychiatry”. He pointed out that it was agreed in the Flemish coalition agreement to create more specialised departments or facilities for vulnerable young people with multiple problems or dual diagnoses, and that provision was made to work on a high-care, high-risk facility for minors with severe psychological problems. The federal coalition agreement also includes tackling the lack of residential places in child and youth psychiatry as a task to be addressed.
“More than a year has passed and hardly anything has been done,” denounced Vandeurzen. He calls on both the Flemish minister of welfare and the federal minister of health to take action and invest additional resources in residential admission capacity.
#FlandersNewsService | Illustration © PHOTO IMAGEBROKER
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