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Apply for integration assistance for children and young people with mental disabilities

If your child has a mental disability or is at risk of a mental disability, you can receive integration assistance. This is to prevent your child from having difficulties participating in society later on.

It comes in the following forms:

  • outpatient,
  • as day-care facilities for children or other semi-inpatient facilities
  • by suitable carers
  • in inpatient facilities and other forms of residential care.

Notice: Mental disordersdisorders which result in a result in can result in a disability,are:

  • psychoses that are not physically justifiable
  • mental disorders as a result of
    • Diseases or injuries of the brain
    • Seizure disorders or
    • of other diseases or physical impairments
  • Addictions
  • Neuroses
  • Personality disorders.

Prerequisite

  • The mental health most probably deviates from the condition typical for the age of life for longer than six months and
  • participation in life in society is therefore impaired or such impairment is to be expected.

Responsible department

the local youth welfare office

Youth Welfare Office is,

  • if you live in a city district: the city administration
  • if you live in a district: the district administration office (Landratsamt)

Note: The city of Constance itself performs the tasks as the local provider of public youth welfare services. The city of Villingen-Schwenningen has handed over the municipal youth welfare office to the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis as of 01.07.2023.

Procedure

Contact the responsible youth welfare office with your problems. The counsellor will decide in a personal interview whether

  • Integration assistance for your child is a possibility or
  • other forms of help would be more suitable.

The decisive factor is whether the disorder that is occurring is actually a mental disability. The Youth Welfare Office obtains an opinion from one of the following specialists for the clarification:

  • Doctor for child and youth psychiatry or psychotherapy
  • Child and youth psychotherapist or child and youth psychotherapist
  • Doctor or psychotherapist with special experience in the field of mental disorders in children and adolescents.

Health professionals identify a deviation from the age-typical mental health. These are primarily doctors of child and youth psychiatry.

The task of social work is to assess the impairment of social participation. Youth welfare thus ultimately decides on the allocation to the group of persons, i.e

  • whether and in what form integration assistance is granted and
  • whether other assistance may be necessary.

If the assistance is granted, all parties involved jointly draw up an assistance plan. This plan specifies, among other things

  • which goals are to be achieved by the integration assistance and
  • how long the assistance will be provided.

Note: The duration of integration assistance depends on the severity of the mental disability. It therefore varies from case to case.

Deadlines

none

Required documents

Clarify directly with the Youth Welfare Office which documents you need to submit.

Costs

The costs for the assistance are borne by the Youth Welfare Office.

The legal guardians may have to contribute to the costs of the assistance according to their financial circumstances.

Miscellaneous

none

Appeal

Check with the relevant office.

Release note

29.08.2023 Sozialministerium Baden-Württemberg