Carmen Zammit, the Commissioner for Children has told Kulhadd newspaper that there is an enormous lack of services available for children in Gozo. The greatest lack is in those services concerning psychological and psychiatric services.

She made this claim when asked to comment on how her office had dealt with the case related to ten children residing at the Lourdes Home, in Ghajnsielem Gozo who, according to the commission appointed by the Gozo Bishop had suffered psychological and physical abuse
whilst residing in this Children's home.

The commissioner for Children said, "In Gozo there is an enormous lack of services for children. In Malta there is a problem, but in Gozo the problem is worse because fewer services are available. Nonetheless, I know that there are plans to introduce these services in Gozo."

She further stated that in Gozo, the team of social workers who work from the Centru Hidma Socjali do follow any cases brought to their attention and they regularly supervise all cases.
"There is however a lack of psychological and psychiatric services,especially in the case of follow up therapy. In this field there is ample room for growth," said the Commissioner for Children.

When asked how she satisfied she is with the services that are being offered to children in difficulty in both Malta and Gozo, she said that no matter how many services were offered, in such cases, it is never enough.
"The problems are growing and therefore the services need to grow too. This is a point I am forever making," said Zammit.

She argued that there is a need for services for those children who exhibit behavioral difficulties so that they can be helped from an early age. "This is very important. Children need services as early as possible, not when they are already heavily laden with problems, because at that point things will be very difficult. However, if these children are caught at a young age, problems later on in life will probably be avoided. This however, needs a lot of resources and resources mean financial output. The country needs to be able to financially sustain these services," said the Commissioner for Children. Some Children even end up within Mount Carmel Hospital.

When asked about the children who were removed from Lourdes Home and how they have lived in the past two years, the Commissioner said that the children are all settled though some do better than others.

"The children are not all fostered. Some live in institutions. Appogg are doing their best to place these children with families, however, one needs families to come forward and offer to be trained to take on the responsibilities of fostering" said Zammit.

Kulhadd also spoke about the services offered to Lourdes Home children in Gozo with the Agency Appogg.

Just a few days after the conclusion of the commission appointed by the Gozo Bishop, Ruth Sciberras, who is responsible for children's services within Appogg, said that the migration of children to Children's homes in Malta was part of an evaluation exercise so that later on the children could be fostered and therefore live in a healthy family ambience.

When asked where the children are being held and whether she confirms that some of these children, with behavioural problems, are being held at Mount Carmel Hospital, the Agency Appogg did not deny that some of these children might have ended up there, because there is no adequate residence where these children could be held.

Appogg said that the health plans for the ex-Lourdes Home children were individually set out according to the individual needs of the children concerned. Ms Sciberras said that that they had tried to find alternative families and when this was not possible, residential homes in Malta offered their services for the protection of these children. Those children with serious behavioural problems were referred to a specialised service unit according to the individual case, while they are constantly monitored by members of the High Support Service within the Agency.

When asked how the services for these ten children have developed over the last two years, Appogg said that the children in question were monitored by the Agency's services according to their individual needs. The services ranged from Fostering, psychological and others. Regarding the lack of services offered in Gozo and when and if there are plans to address this lack in psychological and psychiatric services that the Commissioner for Children had spoken about, Appogg Agency said that should other cases arise whereby other Gozitan children, for some reason or other, are not in a position to live with their natural families or other persons who take care of them, foster families, preferably is Gozo, will be sought. When this would not be possible, foster families would be sought in Malta, and ultimately,
these children would be placed in Maltese institutions if no fostering is available.

When asked to comment on the services available for vulnerable families or person in Gozo, Labour Deputy Justyne Caruana described such services as "very poor". She claimed that whilst in Malta these services were offered by Appogg Agency, "In Gozo there is the Department of Family Welfare who are miles away from Appogg both physically and in the services they provide."

She said that the resources of the department were very limited and each year the budget is decreased despite the fact that the workload is constantly increasing.

"They want to do more, but there is no administrative backing in order for them to do so. The department consists of a very limited space which offers no privacy at all. The place where supervised access is carried out is very small and was refurbished in order to make it more child friendly through a donation by BOV and not the government", said Caruana whilst claiming that due to the lack of physical space there is now a problem related to supervised access which is ordered by the Courts because the department in not in a position to offer the
service and cannot keep up with the demand.

"The social workers often complain about the work conditions and the limitations they work under especially in the case of professional services which are practically inexistent in Gozo.

Although the department can refer cases to Appogg, experience has taught us that this is the worst thing you can do because it tends to make the individuals give up," said Caruana.

Caruana also said that in Gozo there is no governmental building where people can find emergency shelter.

"There is no place where children who have familial problems or who exhibit challenging behaviour can be kept. Many times these children end up in the YPU at Mount Carmel Hospital because of this lack of space needed to hold these people in times of emergency." said Caruana.

She insisted that there is need for a building where these services are offered as well as the human resources and material needed. "In this place there should be a residential unit which offers emergency shelter which is becoming more and more necessary as time goes by," concluded Justyne Caruana.