Czech school joins pilot project for aid to at-risk children: What changed?
At the Chanov housing estate in Most, Czech Republic, which is inhabited mostly by Romani tenants, a pilot project for aid to at-risk children has proved useful. A coordinator in the socially excluded locality provides assistance to chosen families with various problems.
The children who are at risk were first identified by the principal of the local primary school, and by now families are turning to the case manager for help on their own. Two projects, one called the “KID card” and the other called “Signals”, were presented at a conference by representatives of the Society for ALL (SOFA) organization to doctors, social workers, police officers and teachers at a conference in Ústí nad Labem.
The aim of the “Signals” project is to aid at-risk children by discovering their situations in time. The “KID card” project matches the indicators of risk with approaches to be taken by members of each profession in such a case, as the Czech News Agency (ČTK) heard from Lenka Felcmanová, the chair of SOFA.
The “KID card” is a puzzle that summarizes the behavioral displays professionals should pay attention to in children. Both mental and physical symptoms are mentioned.
Adult behavior that is risky is also described. The instructions include a step-by-step process to take if a child is at risk, whether immediately or over a longer period of time.
Contact information for crisis lines to call, as well as institutions and organizations which can support such children, is also included. Now that the pilot project has been tested in Most, it will expand to Chomutov and Litvínov.
The “KID card” has been produced in a version for the region and a version for the republic as a whole, featuring contacts to local nonprofits, psychologists and such. “The card is of enormous benefit, I have the contacts right to hand. It includes signposts on whom to turn to with specific problems,” said Veronika Dobiášová, a Most-based pediatrician.
According to her, while doctors recognize the signs of abuse that is physical, they are never taught about mental abuse in medical school or in continuing education. “The number of children who are mentally abused is rising, there is cyber-bullying. Now, thanks to this card, I know to whom I should turn directly for aid. I can’t wait nine months for a psychiatrist to become available for a mentally abused anorexic girl, she would die in the meantime,” the pediatrician said.
All of the ministries involved with children’s issues support the project. “Aid to children in time is the most effective for them and for their entire family, it prevents the intensification of problems that could lead to the child being taken into state custody. It is also the least expensive solution for the state,” Felcmanová said.
The Chanov primary school, attended by roughly 150 children from the local housing estate, was the first to join the project. “I am quite glad we participated in this project. Before, if I had a problem wih a child, I would turn to the child welfare authorities or the educational psychological counseling centers, but I didn’t have any more information than that. Now I have a catalogue of services and contacts to people who can aid them,” ČTK heard from principal Monika Kynclová.
She established the case manager position at the school, a person to coordinate aid to at-risk children and their families. In the beginning she chose five families who agreed that they would collaborate.
“It could also be thanks to the fact that I have been working at this school for 38 years and I taught many of these parents when they were children,” the principal pointed out. Currently the case manager is taking care of 12 families, some of whom came to her on their own.
The case manager’s job description includes quickly identifying at-risk children, compiling their family’s medical and social history, connecting them with specific aid and following whether the situation manages to improve. Among the most frequent difficulties displayed by the children from Chanov, according to local case manager Kamila Michálková, are behavioral problems, failure to prepare for school at home, and frequent absences.
The case manager has been dealing, for example, with the fact that one family, despite being repeatedly warned of the need to do so, never procured one little boy his hearing aids. “It turned out that the family has absolutely no money, so they were connected with the Labor Office, with a physician and with other institutions, and everything was corrected,” the principal said.
Details on the “KID card” and “Signals” projects as well as on the issue of aid to at-risk children can be found on the website of the SOFA organization.
