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Children with disabilities: overexposure to violence, abuse, school drop-out and institutional care

The current situation of children with disabilities in Europe has revealed a number of challenges. These children are up to 17 times more likely to live in an institution than their peers without disabilities, as underlined by Rosangela Berman Bieler from UNICEF. According to Lumos, there are one million children in institutional care in Europe, a setting whose harm done to children’s development and life chances has been emphasised in research. Disabled people leave education and training earlier than those not having a disability (31.5 % compared with 12.3 % on average in the EU – source: Eurostat, 2011). Children with disabilities are also four times more likely to experience abuse – understood as physical and/or sexual abuse, violence or neglect – as explained by Nevena Peneva who presented the latest Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) report.

Visible’ vs. ‘invisible’ disability: addressing children and young people’s mental health problems Moreover, the more severe the disability, the more exposed a child is. This is all the more true of so-called ‘invisible’ or hidden disability, such as a hearing or visual impairment, or cognitive dysfunctions, brain injuries, learning difficulties and mental health disorders. Harder to spot, these call for coordinated solutions early on, as highlighted by Ida’s Diary, a film telling the struggle of a Norwegian young woman to cope with her emotional instability.

Developing adequate services for children with disabilities

Developing inclusive, integrated and person-centred services was at the core of the solutions highlighted during the conference. “We need to build a whole system around the person”, said Margaret Tuite, Coordinator for the rights of the child at the European Commission. In relation to this, local authorities have a key role in providing adequate community-based care and support, as emphasised by A. Dick, a Scottish mother of a child with spina bifida, whose needs are met at their local school in a mainstream environment. Following the ‘Getting it Right For Every Child’ (GIRFEC) approach promoted by the Scottish government, a personalised plan was created involving all professionals through multi-agency cooperation.

Based on the report’s conclusions and in keeping with the 2013 EC Recommendation on Investing in children, N. Peneva (FRA) proposed 10 key points to improve the lives of children with disabilities, such as inclusive child protection systems, improved service accessibility, family support, and the development of services in the community. According to Lumos, 90% of institutionalised children in Europe are not orphans and could be cared for in family settings Zara Todd, a self-advocate from the UK, stressed that in order to achieve social inclusion, accessibility should not be understood as merely physical, but should also include broader arrangements in schools and workplaces, working together with service providers, families and other health and social care professionals. Unfortunately, such a broad definition was not taken into account by the European Accessibility Act that was recently proposed, and barely touched upon at the conference (see our article here).

Conclusion

Bearing in mind that “the UNCRPD is not a target to be achieved, but a benchmark from which we should grow”, as Pat Clarke (Down Syndrome Ireland) said, its implementation and that of the UNCRC requires services based in the community facilitating the child’s active participation. Investing in child protection and care for children with disabilities at an early stage is key to increase their life chances later in life, for instance, in education and in the labour market. Public social services at local level working with professionals, families and the wider community play a key role in ensuring the inclusion and participation of all children, a dimension that still needs to be acknowledged and encouraged at European level.

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