It is with huge concern that the Danish group home Solhaven, which ran a WWASP like program for 20 years will reopen. They were forced to close due to a police investigation into possible abuse in the program. They were acquitted in a trial because based on the difference in the social status between the reputable citizens and the foster children who came from poor families. Social heritage matters – especially in Denmark.

At another group home a 15 year old girl was isolated in a cottage with a counselor. They had sex and the counselor received 60 days in jail. The evidence was a confession the girl had taped and sperm the girl had sampled from herself. The 60 days illustrate how the authorities look upon children from underprivileged children in foster care. 

At Solhaven the employees used force to control the teenagers. They accept that and the question in the trial was whether this use of force was illegal. The court found that it was an acceptable use of force. They also forced the teenagers to remain sitting on a wooden chair for many hours.

In relationship with the closure the local community lost 250 jobs. Basically there are not that many jobs to get in that area so the authorities who were given the task to supervise the facility had to balance the security and welfare of the children against the number of possible jobs in the local community.

Why did the case then get to the court when they so to say were protected by the local authorities? A number of policemen were issues a lot of gifts but fortunately for the children not every police officer were on the gift-list and it created jealousy at the police station. Some years ago the entire Danish police were undergoing a restructure which placed new officers in charge of the area. Officers not on the gift-list and not prepared to receive things in exchange for looking at another direction when problems with Solhaven occurred.

It started the case. It closed Solhaven. 250 people lost their jobs. Of course now where they were acquitted their lawyers have been harassing witnesses using the Diamond Ranch Academy method. They want to open again. The question is: Can they be monitored thorough so no foster children are put in harms way?

We don’t believe so. We will continue to watch them and alarm the authorities in Copenhagen so the local authorities in the community cannot protect the management.

The Danish police has charged 12 people with various acts of violence against the teenagers who had been sent to the facility named Solhaven in the Danish hamlet Farsoe by the authorities.

The teenagers were according to the charges exposed to violence and acts of humiliation by the employees.

The facility has fired the people charged with crimes. Officially due to the economy of the facility, but in reality to distance themselves from the charges the employees have been hit with.

Several of the charges are many years old and according to Danish laws acts of violence should have been reported to the authorities which are supposed to monitor such facilities. Numerous inspections have found nothing and because the area where the facility is located suffers from massive unemployment leaving it a major contributor to local jobs it is properly a question of putting support of local jobs over the interest of the children placed at the facility.

We will keep our readers updated on the situation.

Source:
12 tiltales for vold og tvang mod unge på døgninstitution (Politiken - article in Danish)

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