Request help with education
Source: BUS Rheinland-PfalzIn every family there is a quarrel from time to time. Quarrels between parents or between parents and children. When the quarrels become more and more frequent, it is a great burden. Parents and children sometimes need support. Educational aids offer this support. Help for upbringing is the name for various offers of help with problems and in crisis situations of families.
If you would like to receive help from the Youth Welfare Office, you must contact them. The help is not obligatory, but an offer. The first step is often a consultation with the Youth Welfare Office. There you can explain your problem. The staff can give you suggestions on how to solve the problem.
Children, adolescents or young adults can also get help from the Youth Welfare Office on their own. The parents do not have to know about this if the young people do not want it.
The help for upbringing is based on the interests of the child or young person. The basis for the granting is the help plan procedure. In the help plan procedure, the custodians, the children or adolescents and the youth welfare office are involved.
There are different types of help for upbringing:
- A pedagogue advises and supports parents in questions of upbringing (educational counseling).
- A therapist tries to help the family in group sessions (social group work).
- A psychological or social pedagogical specialist tries to help individual family members (educational assistance).
- Children get help when parents have a mental illness.
- Promoting the child's or adolescent's independence while maintaining a connection to the family (care assistant).
- Care and provision for a child in an emergency situation. For example, the child may be placed in a foster family or residential home for a certain period of time (home education or supervised living arrangements and intensive individual socio-educational support).
- For children with mental disabilities, there is also the integration assistance (does not belong to the assistance for upbringing). Of course, they are also entitled to help in raising children. The assistance and the integration assistance can be granted side by side or in combination.
Education in the day group
Education in the day group is geared towards children and young people of school age (usually elementary school). The pedagogical concept and offer is based on the afternoon area. This means that the children are with their families in the evenings and at weekends. The help is provided for a limited period of time. The care in day groups is intended to relieve the burden on families and enable minors to stay with their families. In addition, specific educational content is taught.
The focus of education in the day group is therefore social learning in the group and support for school promotion and parental work. There are day groups in Bitburg, Speicher and Prüm, but their catchment areas also include the surrounding areas. The average duration of care for children and young people in day groups is two to three years. A contribution towards the costs of day group care is charged.
Educational support
Parental advisors are employed to work with children or young people to overcome parenting problems in their familiar environment. They are a point of contact for all everyday issues and problems in the areas of school, education, family, friends and leisure activities. Parental advisors are predominantly social workers and social education workers. As there are usually conflicts with the parents, they act as neutral contacts and mediators for the child or young person and try to solve any problems that arise through regular communication with family members. Reasons for taking on a guardianship can be
- Developmental problems
- Relationship problems,
- school / education problems
- Criminal offenses, addiction problems, etc.
Parental assistance is a long-term support measure and lasts between one and two years on average. The youth welfare office does not charge a fee. The use of parental guidance can also be imposed by the juvenile court as part of juvenile court assistance.
Educational counseling
Educational counseling is a free, freely accessible counseling option for all individual and family-related problems. It is available to adults as well as children and young people. Educational counseling can be offered by free, independent providers, but is also part of the statutory services offered by youth welfare offices.
The aim of counseling is to develop possible solutions for the various problem areas and to implement these independently at a later date. Reasons for visiting a counseling center can be
- Parenting issues (e.g. questions about parenting style or uncertainties in parenting issues)
- Abnormalities in social behavior (e.g. aggressive behavior, inhibition, isolation, stealing, lying, sibling rivalry, substance abuse)
- Separation or divorce and loss (separation of parents, divorce of parents, death of a parent or close relative)
- Difficult family situations (conflicts between parents, alcohol problems or drug abuse by one parent, unemployment)
- Developmental delays (e.g. delays in motor development, perception or language acquisition)
In order to find the most appropriate solution to the problem, the specialists often work together in a multidisciplinary team. This means that an attempt is made to unite as many different professional groups as possible in one team, each of which contributes their different perspectives. All information is treated with the utmost discretion.
Help for adults
Help for young adults involves providing assistance to young people between the ages of 18 and 21 who need support to lead an independent life. The young adult is entitled to apply for help himself and must declare his cooperation in the help plan. This assistance is less concerned with material support (housing, etc.); the focus is on educational/therapeutic work with the young person.
Help planning
If parents or young people make use of help from the youth welfare office, they also undertake to participate in help planning. The aim of this is to review the need and the type of help to be provided and the necessary services and to determine these together with all those involved. The aim is to regularly check whether the help is still suitable and necessary. Goals are defined and redefined and, if necessary, the type and scope of help is changed.
Taking into care
Taking children and young people into care is the temporary placement of a minor with a suitable person, in an institution or in another form of supervised accommodation. Children and young people can contact the youth welfare office directly with a request to be taken into care. Taking into care means a general protective relationship between the youth welfare office and the minor. If the child is taken into care, the legal guardians must be informed immediately. If they do not agree to this, the minor must be handed over to them immediately or a decision must be obtained from the family court.
The task of the youth welfare office is crisis intervention, but this is only of a temporary nature. This means that taking a minor into care does not mean taking them into custody, but rather clarifying their future prospects. In order to avert danger, children can also be taken into care against their will. The child is free to inform a trusted person. While the child is being taken into care, the youth welfare office exercises some of the child's personal care.
Socio-educational family and individual support
Intensive socio-pedagogical support is one of the most intensive forms of outpatient assistance. It is used for multi-causal problems. As educational support, it is not aimed at a single family member, but involves the entire family and the home environment. Of course, this requires a high level of cooperation from the family, as this measure takes the form of a socio-educational family helper coming into the household for several hours a week. The aim of this help is to help the family in crises and to be able to cope on their own without this help in the long term. All family members must agree to cooperate.
Individual support is provided to young people who require intensive support for social integration and independent living. Here too, assistance is based on the specific needs of the individual case and must be necessary and suitable for approval.