THE NEED FOR A THERAPY SERVICE IN ESTONIA

At present in Estonia, there is no round-the-clock long-term supportive milieu therapy service available for children who have experienced abuse and domestic violence (or for children who are suspected to have experienced it).

The milieu therapy service is an essential complement to the existing support systems (victim support, orphanage, SAK, psychiatric clinic) that support abused children and those suffering from complex psychosocial problems.

The milieu therapy services are highly needed all over Estonia. We want the Tartu Milieu Therapy Centre to be the beginning of the network of therapy centres and in the future the service to be close to home, and available to the target group all over Estonia.

Benefit for children
  • Five days a week, the child is in a protective, supportive, structuring, inclusive, recognizable and safe milieu therapy environment.
  • Abused, humiliated children who are frustrated and disappointed with their loved ones and the world, who have lost trust, can learn again to rely on the positivity of relationships and situations. They experience that trustworthy people and trusting secure relationships are possible.
  • Children are given the opportunity to participate in a different model of society, which is not conflict-free but which provides experience in solving problems in a peaceful situation with a safe adult.
  • An adequate, solution-seeking and non-judgmental environment is provided; this environment further supports children’s opportunities to develop on the basis of their own experience.
  • Children who are confused about the diagnosis will receive explanations and support for understanding their diagnosis.
  • In a controlled, secure environment, communication skills with peers improve. Targeted interaction gives the opportunity to trust and offers support for friendship.
  • Children are given the opportunity and are encouraged to ask questions that seem embarrassing or confusing.
  • Children learn to address their questions and express emotions, becoming bolder and more confident.
  • Children’s psychological, emotional, social, educational and cognitive development is supported by a team of professionals led by a child psychiatrist.
Benefit for the family/guardian

  • Once the situation has changed, the burnt-out family has the opportunity to take a rest and re-evaluate the current situation more objectively together with the professionals in the therapy centre in order to find more effective solutions for the future. The family is provided an opportunity to break away from the vicious circle of negativity.

  • Shared responsibility, successful cooperation and counseling in supporting the child are provided.

  • Cooperation with the therapy centre prevents and reduces the stress of family members (feelings of helplessness, failure, incompetence and ineptitude).

  • Reduced levels of emotional stress allow the families to contribute to social and working life and to function on a daily basis.

  • Families are provided with an explanation of the need for family therapy/couple therapy.

  • The cooperation with the centre also helps to notice and support other children in the family, who are often left behind in their fears and worries about what is happening in the family and who do not dare to burden the parents further.

Benefit for the state

  • The burden on the psychiatric clinic, school support network, family doctors, child care services and the court system is reduced.

  • A unified support system is created for abused children and their families by providing long-term round-the-clock service.

  • Help in preventing criminalization.

  • Shared responsibility and reduced levels of emotional stress allow adults in the family to re-invest in working life, and thus in the national economy.

 

“Therapy centre was like a second home”

Young person (two years after the young person’s stay in a milieu therapy centre)