Children and young people who have ended up in crime are best rehabilitated in family homes. It says Annika Öquist, head of unit at the National Board of Health and Welfare.
– In the long run, children do not feel good from living in the constructed environment that an institution is, she says in Nyhetsmorgon.
The collected research shows that interventions such as placement in temporary HVB homes or forced custody within SIS homes may be needed in the short term, but that children and young people need a family environment to develop in the right direction, says Annika Öquist, head of unit at the National Board of Health and Welfare.
– We have come out with new recommendations that family homes with powerful treatment efforts can be a better alternative than compulsory care.
Children and young people who have ended up in crime often need both family homes and interventions.
– A little more is needed than just living and living, you may have to work in a structured way with different types of treatment efforts, says Annika Öquist.
The family home dad: “Participating on equal terms”
Martin Bengtsson and his wife have had almost 20 young people placed with them in different periods. Martin, former police officer, now priest and member of the jury, says that they got good results with the young people with structure, boundary setting and love.
– It is actually the components that prove to be successful. We give them a context and they get to be part of the family on equal terms. What we’ve noticed is that a lot of these tough guys can get really small and watch kids’ shows with our smaller kids. It’s something they missed growing up.
Advocating early intervention
Martin Bengtsson emphasizes that he and his wife’s relationship-building with the placed youth yields results in the long run.
– You need time to build the relationships and time for them to be able to make mistakes and for them to see that adults remain in love. It has proven to be a major success factor for us, he says.
He believes that the best thing you can do to prevent young people from being recruited into gangs is to intervene with early interventions, before the child or young person has had time to go too far into crime.
– Those who are recruited into crime today are very young, they have very little developed thinking about consequences. What you need to do is not to increase the punishment, but to put in efforts earlier, to work proactively.
Fact: So many children are placed
A survey made by the National Board of Health and Welfare shows that 94,000 people born in the years 1990-2004 were placed in family homes, HVB homes or SIS homes.
Of the 94,000 people, 43 percent had been placed once, 24 percent twice and 33 percent three or more times.
The National Board of Health and Welfare’s mapping shows that the number of placements and moves has a strong connection with school results and level of education in young adulthood. The more placements, the higher the risk of low grades.
Family homes are the most common form of placement.
Source: National Board of Health and Welfare.