A look behind the scenes

Nasty situation

Police raided a home on suspicion of drug possession and drug trafficking. During the raid, police find a nasty situation. The home, which also houses three children (9, 10 and 18), looks neglected. The police are concerned and contact the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT).

The CIT arrives on scene and finds a heavily contaminated house that includes feces on the floor. Someone from the municipality, who is also present, indicated that until three years ago the family was known to be in care because of a number of care reports.

In addition, it turned out that the family was in debt restructuring, but this was suddenly paid off. Police suspect they paid off their debt because of drug trafficking. The mother indicates that she does not approve of outside help. Still, police see the need to look at safe care for the children.

Inside the network is unfortunately not an option, as the grandfather is also being raided for alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

The CIT calls in Safe Home and consults on a plan of action. It is decided that CIT and Safe Home will work together on site to make an assessment of the situation. This is then also coordinated with the police.

Late afternoon, both CIT and Safe Home are on site. Then it turns out that the youngest two children have been placed by the mother with relatives in an undisclosed location. Panicked and crying, the mother let it be known that she is afraid her children will be taken away. The father tries to calm the mother. An attempt is made from the CIT to approach the mother to continue the conversation again. In the meantime, the home is viewed by Safe Home. Especially on the second floor it was very dirty; in addition to excrement, there is a lot of dirty laundry and stench coming from everywhere. After a few minutes, the mother calmed down and the conversation continued. It is agreed with Safe Home that father and mother will clean up the house and that Safe Home will come the next day to check it and investigate further.

The police prepare a care report for Safe Home and the CIT closes and transfers the follow-up entirely to Safe Home. And so another day is over for the CIT.

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