Four out of ten crisis processes for young people collide with a lack of space in youth assistance

Last year all Flemish crisis report points for children and young people received more than 18,000 calls from, for example, schools, police or family members of young people, more than 50 percent more than in 2020. In just over half of the cases, a search for help effectively starts, where the young person must be temporarily placed in a place other than at home.

That upward trend will also continue in 2025. In the first three months of this year, all reporting points together recorded more than 5,300 applications, an increase of 12 percent compared to last year.

The crisis relief in youth care cannot keep up with those applications. Of all the crisis processes that were closed last year, in almost four out of ten cases it was given that there was no offer in youth assistance. In 2021 that was the case with ‘only’ 22 percent of the crisis processes.

The potential consequences of the reception deficiency became painfully clear this week, when it became known that an eleven -year -old girl who was not right was raped in youth assistance. She stayed in a hospital without adequate guidance.

This year 55 children in Flanders were already placed in a hospital. Of them there were 35 younger than six years.