Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Due to a lack of foster care options, an 11-year-old boy may be placed in a hospital, despite being perfectly healthy, highlighting critical gaps in child welfare support in Belgium.
Why is an 11-year-old boy facing hospitalization?
An 11-year-old boy was forced to leave his home temporarily when his parents, against their will, no longer could take care of him. This also spread to his six brothers and sisters. Foster Care Flanders found temporary shelter for the seven children, in their familiar environment. Among others, with a woman from the neighbourhood, who has good contacts with the school. During the weekend, the 11-year-old boy stayed with her, and during the week with a family where two of his brothers also found shelter. A temporary solution, for a few weeks. But a few weeks turned into a few months and the boy could not stay with the family. So alternatives were sought. They appear to be non-existent. Neither with foster families, nor with youth institutions, nor in his environment. The only option left is a hospital. For a perfectly healthy child.
It is not yet a hundred per cent certain that the boy will have to go to the hospital, says coordinator Jeroen Vandenbussche of Foster Care Flanders: “We are doing everything we can to find a solution. Hospitalization remains exceptional, it is the very last option.”
Why are hospitals becoming a last resort for children?
Last year, 160 children and young people had to go to the hospital for a “social admission”. Sometimes they need medical care, such as a baby of a drug-addicted mother who has to kick the habit because he or she is showing withdrawal symptoms. But most of them were healthy and should have ended up in foster care. Incidentally, those 160 are almost double the number in 2022, when 88 children and young people were admitted. The increase was greatest among babies: 101 in 2023, compared to 56 in 2022.
If a baby or child ends up in a hospital due to a lack of emergency care, that hospital will always offer the minimum: the well-known bread, bed and bath. However, according to Ann De Guchtenaere, a paediatrician at Ghent University Hospital and chair of the Flemish Association of Pediatrics, a hospital always strives for more: “Because a child has the right to more. The right to education, the right to play, you name it. Our pedagogical staff do their best, but they also have sick children to look after and are not there on the weekend. It often depends on how busy the day is and how much time we can give those children.”
According to Ann De Guchtenaere, the hospital also takes in children who should go to foster care, but who also have medical needs: “They often end up here for a very long time, too long. Logically: a child with medical needs is an extra hurdle for a foster family.” The Ghent University Hospital never refuses children who cannot go anywhere due to a lack of shelter. “We are often the path of least resistance. If we do not have a place, such as in times of an RSV virus, we always look for solutions at hospitals in the area.”
At the moment, the hospital is taking in two children who do not belong there: “As a society, we cannot let this happen. Children deserve better. Let this also be a call from the hospitals and the pediatric nurses to the Agency for Growing Up: involve us more often in the consultation on this issue.”
Moreover, Foster Care Flanders is launching a campaign to find foster families. “To be clear: these can also be two dads, two moms or singles,” says Jeroen Vandenbussche. The need is therefore high: last year there were 1,121 requests for crisis foster care and Foster Care was unable to provide an answer in 744 cases. There is no improvement in sight: in the first half of this year, the number of reports for crisis foster care was also higher than last year. Foster Care is therefore looking for 400 families in crisis care and 1,000 in regular care. “We always start by looking within the child’s network: family, friends, school. Only then do we look at foster families from our network. If that doesn’t work either, we continue looking. A hospital is the very last resort.”
