Report finds ‘serious shortcomings’ in Belgian institutions caring for French nationals
The French Court of Audit has found “serious shortcomings”, including “mistreatment”, in more than 60 institutions providing psychiatric and medical care for French people in Belgium since 2015 and has called for stricter controls.
Specialised medico-social establishments in Wallonia have been taking in French nationals for decades and numbers have been rising steadily, with some 8,200 people – 7,000 adults and 1,200 children – now under their care.
Wallonia takes in “complex cases” for which there is no solution in France, such as people discharged from psychiatric hospitals, young people who cannot find places in adult establishments when they reach 18 and people excluded from an institution because of behavioural problems.
The size of the population cared for in Wallonia illustrates the shortcomings of French provision, the court says. The care is paid for by the French social security system and departments, at an estimated cost of 500 million euros a year.
Frequent inspections
“The creation of establishments in Belgium … has attracted new entrepreneurs, some of whom are far removed from the medico-social field, to work alongside the incumbent operators,” the court said in a report published on Tuesday.
Serious failings have been identified in more than 60 establishments since 2015, according to the court, which consulted 150 inspection reports. These include lack of care sometimes leading to death, physical or verbal abuse, deprivation of food as punishment, spoiled food, rationing of meals, poorly maintained or dilapidated buildings and financial fraud.
"The Belgian system focuses on education, whereas in France these complex cases are in psychiatric hospitals, on medication or in restraints"
“There have been shortcomings in Belgium, but standards have been raised and establishments have been closed by the authorities. Inspections are more frequent in Belgium than in France,” Isabelle Resplendino, president of the non-profit AFrESHEB, which looks after the interests of French people with disabilities in Belgium, told AFP.
“The Belgian system focuses on education, whereas in France these complex cases are in psychiatric hospitals, on medication or in restraints.”
The Assemblée des départements de France noted with “concern” the issues identified by the Court and approved its recommendations.
A nurse at a psychiatric hospital in Toulouse, France. Thousands of French nationals are cared for in Belgium as the French system has no facilities for certain complex cases © PHOTO FREDERIC SCHEIBER / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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