We have just learned that the founder and daily manager of the treatment program Solhaven in Farsoe in Denmark has been forced on leave.

The new manager Bent Borg promises changes. We will follow the program closely with help from volunteers in the local community in Farsoe.

2011 was been a difficult year for Danish children. A nationwide panic caused by a few cases of child abuse where the social services had knowledge about how terrible the situation was for the children but didn't intervene resulted in the removal of many children from their families who hadn't any problems. It was cases where parents have criticized the level of education in the school resulted in an act of revenge from the teachers. Others became victims for conflicts between neighbors and their parents.

This panic is still ongoing here in 2012. Still too many teens are robbed of a normal life being forced to live in group homes and foster families while the accusations without obvious facts are investigated.

The politicians in Denmark need to be brave. They need to recognize that the employees in the social services have set them up. The employees have been complaining about the level of the budgets for quite some time and our guess observing the work is that they knew exactly how horrible the children lived but they failed to intervene so they could create headlines. They know that failed work is without risk because the politician’s normal reaction is to fire some random manager who has no direct responsibility in these cases. It has turned out to be exactly what the politicians have done.

Only when social workers are fired if they remove children in cases where the investigation shows that the removal has been without cause then the social workers will focus on the few cases where their services are truly needed.
Next a reform of the methods used to hire and supervise foster families, group homes and treatment centers is needed. 75 percent of the foster families don’t receive education. A number of group homes are run for profit only and in treatment centers there are still too many cases where the employees restrain the children instead of communicating with them.
Basically 75 of the foster families are in the game for the money only. For a number of the group homes and treatment centers the same can be said.

Short to say they need to be put out of business.

The actions in the Solhaven program is a good promise for the future, but the minister of social services need to push the system for a change.

We will be there and try to keep her to do her work.


Sources:

• Omstridt leder stopper på Solhaven (Nordjyske Tidende - In Danish)
  
• Solhaven datasheet - Fornits Wiki
  

We have just learned that a teenager in Florida has been arrested for the murder of his mother. Like the famous case of Valessa Robinson there seems to have been some private prison farm involved.

In 1999 Valessa Robinson was risking being jailed at a private Christian farm called Steppin Stone Farm. On Facebook many of the former inmates from this farm has spoken about their ordeal which have left them emotional scarred for life.

The media attention given the Valessa Robinson case should have warned parents from interfering in the life of their children, but sadly it hasn't been so.

Now we learn that the teenager from the present was sent to a private boot camp styled program by his mother and the hatred he learned at the program had caused him to kill his mother while his little brother was sleeping in another room.

We must urge parents to let their children choose their own path, even if this path leads them down the wrong road. No family deserves to become part of tragedies like we have seen in the cases mentioned above.

Source:
Teen Son Killed Mom, Spent Days With Body: Police (NBC 6 Miami)