Analyse
As of: 07/29/2022 4:53 p.m
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Children and young people from precarious backgrounds are hit particularly hard by the corona crisis. Pandemic means constant stress for this group. Does politics care enough?
By Corinna Emundts, tagesschau.de
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The study findings on the consequences of the pandemic for children and young people are now overwhelming. Physical and psychological consequences are recognized – especially for the younger group, who are disadvantaged anyway. Be it through a precarious family situation in which children are already suffering due to poverty, illness or violence. Be it due to a migration background, with which parents cannot support children in language acquisition.
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Corinna Emundts
tagesschau.de
@CEmundts
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Politicians know that. The Corona Expert Council appointed by the traffic light coalition dedicated a separate paper to this age group in February – with the call to “prioritize the well-being of the child”, again in its most recent recommendation for autumn 2022. But experts are concerned that that the pandemic is again at the expense of the youngest. And there, above all, continues to harm those who are already having a hard time. “It’s not enough to say that schools remain open – accompanying concepts are needed,” says Julian Schmitz, Professor of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy at the University of Leipzig.
“High high additional performance for young people”
The chairman of the German Psychotherapists’ Association, Gebhard Hentschel, confirms this:
The loads for the groups described are very high and demand a great deal of additional work from the developing children and young people. The higher the burdens are independent of the pandemic, the stronger the effects of additional pandemic burdens can be – and the fewer protection and compensation options there can be.
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The pandemic in its third year: This also means that politicians have to learn lessons from their previous measures. This becomes particularly clear when it comes to school closures – they should no longer exist. However, the initial situation has changed in the third year of the pandemic. Children from the age of five and young people can now be vaccinated, many have already gone through the disease – or even have both. Accordingly, many non-risk families, in which no member has previous illnesses, are now dealing with the virus in a relaxed manner. They expect the old normal in schools and daycare centers.
The infection protection policy must be just as suitable for them as it is for more concerned parents, teachers and educators who want more general protection requirements. And even more so for so-called shadow families who isolate themselves heavily because a family member is previously ill and an infection could be life-threatening. One thing is clear: politics cannot please everyone here.
But the dilemma of politics has changed in the third year of the pandemic: In the first year and a half of the pandemic without the possibility of vaccination, they had to weigh up the right to education on site – not only in home schooling – and on the other hand the health integrity of schoolchildren, whose parents and teachers. The dilemma is now different: on the one hand, the group of children and young people who are particularly badly affected does not want to be isolated again in order to further impair their development – i.e. to keep daycare centers and schools open. On the other hand, the infection process must be kept under control in the case of a more morbid and deadly virus variant.
Corona policy: one of the points of contention of the coalition
It’s no secret that the Greens and SPD Minister Karl Lauterbach still disagree with the FDP to this day – that became clear during the coalition negotiations. In addition to financial policy, the Corona policy is one of the main points of contention in the coalition. But the interests of the federal states must also be taken into account in the Infection Protection Act (IfSG). With a view to the start of the new school year, the health ministers of the federal states had asked the federal government for clarity about the legal framework before the parliamentary summer break. Without success.
It’s about wearing masks indoors, which the federal states cannot order for schools under the current version of the Infection Protection Act – without the Bundestag resolving an epidemic situation of national scope or correcting the IfSG, the current version of which is valid until April 23. September applies. The CDU school minister of North Rhine-Westphalia could only “recommend” it in her current action plan this week. Your federal state will start school operations again on August 10th.
But it is not enough politically to look at the Infection Protection Act. A vaccination strategy and test regulation is needed, emphasizes Health Minister Lauterbach. “If there is a test strategy, you also need an isolation strategy,” says expert Schmitz. For example, outreach social work that does not leave the stressed families alone. There was “nothing in sight”.
But it is also important to quickly implement the political goals of the coalition agreement, which are now important for children and young people. Sufficient therapy places, for example. “Especially in regions with fewer registered therapists, this can result in long waiting times,” says the psychotherapist association. It is therefore important that psychotherapeutic treatment places are expanded, especially in structurally weak regions. And funding programs for healthy eating and exercise. Both: Obesity and lack of exercise have increased among children and young people as a result of the pandemic.
Therapy places, digital and sporting offers
A lot still has to happen when it comes to the coalition goal of digitization: Schools need more support and resources to equip themselves and train teaching staff in such a way that the lessons can be followed well by students in quarantine. After all, children from families with several children can have longer quarantine periods at home even without school closures, for example if siblings become infected one after the other.
Lots to do for the federal and state governments. All of this actually speaks for an early children and youth summit to deal with the pandemic – in the Chancellery.
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