There are various forms of youth care in the Netherlands. The most common form is outpatient care. Young people and their families receive help and support at home. Unfortunately, outpatient care is not always sufficient to properly help a child. If the child’s development is seriously threatened, more intensive forms of youth care are deployed. For example, a child may end up in a crisis shelter or a living group. If a child cannot live at home for a long time, placement in a family home can also be used. What exactly a family home entails is stated below.
The family home
A family home is a small-scale form of youth care. Children often live here who, due to circumstances, have been removed from their home for a long period of time, i.e. longer than two years, and have no opportunity to move on to family or a foster family. Four to six children usually live in a family home, together with a couple who have taken care of and guided the children. At least one person in the couple has completed relevant training to work in youth care and one or both partners are employed by the youth care organization under which the family home falls. A family home is located in a home of the youth care organization or in the home of the family home parents, who then receive compensation for the use of their home.
What is the difference with a living group?
As already written, a family home is a small-scale form of youth care. The difference with a living group is that a maximum of six children live in the family home and usually eight to ten in a living group. Another important difference is that in the family home a resident couple is responsible for the care and guidance of the children. The couple basically works seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. They usually receive support from one or two permanent pedagogical employees who replace them on days off and holidays. Through the regular and intensive guidance of two permanent family home parents, a family home can offer the children more of a home and give them the feeling of growing up in a family.
The team of a living group is generally larger than six people, who work alternate shifts of eight hours. On one day, several pedagogical staff members are responsible for care and guidance. This means there is less continuity than in a family home.
Who can become a family caregiver?
The profession of family caregiver is not for everyone. First of all, it is important that one of the partners has completed a relevant training course, for example SPW-4 or SPH. In addition, both partners must fully support the decision. Being a family caregiver is a way of life rather than a profession. Work and private life regularly overlap and it is important to be able to maintain a good balance and to be able to set your boundaries. The family home parents are also asked to open their home or to move to a home owned by the youth care organization. Most homes do not have a private area, so you really share your life with the children living in the home. In addition, people and agencies involved with the child are regularly received in the home, such as the Youth Care Office and biological family. Having good social skills is therefore also indispensable.
Why become a family home parent?
You become a family parent from your heart. After all, you more or less make your life available to the children you will care for. The salaries in youth care are not high and the number of hours you spend in this profession is not in proportion to the number of hours on your contract, so passion and love are needed to maintain this profession. An important argument for becoming a family caregiver is that you can be of essential importance to the development of children. You can directly help and support children who have stagnated in their development and guide them towards independence. Because you live and work together very intensively with the children, a bond of trust is created from which you can achieve a lot. The work therefore gives a deeper meaning and more meaning to your life.
What should you take into account?
What is important to realize is that children in a family home are sometimes unable to provide reciprocity in contact. This means that you can form a bond with the child, but the child sometimes cannot do this with you. You should not expect affection or love from the child. You must always adapt to what the child needs and can do. Furthermore, there may sometimes be resistance from the child and also from the biological family. Children generally prefer to live with their own parents and can then express their disgust about their current living situation, without taking into account the feelings of the family parents. Furthermore, the children in a family home carry a past with them, which can cause developmental and/or behavioral problems. This requires the ability to look behind behavior and respond to it in a pedagogically responsible manner. Finally, working as a family caregiver also influences the relationship with your partner and your own family. Partners are suddenly colleagues of each other and must also work together. They must always take the presence of the children into account, for example if they have a conflict with each other. If the family home parents have their own children, this can also make the job more complicated. It is important to think carefully about what position your own children occupy within the family home and the difference between this and the children of the family home and how you deal with this in practice.