Many children and adolescents suffering from addiction will in the future have to be treated in clinics for adults – for economic reasons.
dpa/ The struggle to preserve the country’s largest specialist clinic for addicted children and adolescents is over. The Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Clinic in Ahlhorn, Lower Saxony, near Oldenburg, will cease operations on June 30 because the German Pension Insurance (DRV) does not want to pay higher daily rates. The sponsor of the clinic is the diaconal Leinerstift. Its managing director, Wolfgang Vorwerk, spoke on Monday evening of “system failure” and a “catastrophe for the affected children and adolescents and for the Federal Republic of Germany.”
The Federal Government’s Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Policy, Hendrik Streeck (CDU), criticized on Monday evening the uncompromising stance of the DRV. Germany spends 1.3 billion euros daily in healthcare. “And we are failing here at 200 euros per day per child.”
Nationwide, Only 25 Places Left for Minors
The clinic is a medical aftercare facility. It has so far admitted children and adolescents who have completed addiction therapy and in whom relapse should be prevented. According to Leinerstift, there are only 85 such rehabilitation slots for children and adolescents throughout Germany. With the Bonhoeffer Clinic, 60 of them will disappear.
“We have 25 places left,” says Streeck. Although the DRV speaks of 450 places in Germany, it refuses to explain its numbers or name the clinics.
On Friday, the DRV again offered to continue paying the current rates if the clinic presented an “overhauled, sustainable and economically viable concept.” According to Vorwerk, however, it is not possible to continue operating at the approved rates in a cost-covering and therapeutically adequate manner. The DRV does not recognize the special needs of the affected individuals.
Specialist Clinic to Become a Youth Welfare Facility
From the specialist clinic, there should now be a youth welfare facility in which up to 22 adolescents with addictive disorders will be cared for, Vorwerk said. Planned are living groups with outpatient therapists. The Oldenburg Hospital’s pediatric and adolescent psychiatry department will take over the medical specialty care.
“But I want to be very clear: This is not an adequate substitute for what we have done here so far,” Vorwerk said. In the future, there will be a lack of the full, around-the-clock medical and therapeutic care that a rehabilitation clinic could provide.
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