A tragedy that can affect everyone: experts admit they don’t even know exactly how many children are missing



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According to D. Dimšaitė, it is now possible to talk about quarterly statistics, from 2020. January 1 to April 30.

“There are 776 missing children on record, but we do not have the exact number of families in our organization with missing children or adults. We are brought closer to individuals and we apply case management, psychological and emotional support to them,” he said.

The spokesperson also emphasized that it was very difficult to say the exact number of consultations each month about missing loved ones, as that number varies.

“One month more people apply, the next we receive fewer calls. However, those numbers remain similar and cannot drop sharply or rise.”

A support center employee said that some of the disappearance stories are very similar and others very different. She did not want to summarize that a particular problem is recurring in certain families.

“It cannot be said because, in fact, no family, no child, or no parent is protected from this disaster. This problem involves everyone and it would not be possible to point to any trends. In most cases, the disappearances are sufficiently individual. “

However, the specialist noted that the incidence of disappearances among adolescents is higher and that minors who grow up in child care institutions are more likely to flee.

“It just came to our attention then fugitives and it often runs multiple times, not one at a time. In fact, this shows the need to pay close attention to all children and not necessarily to those growing up in childcare. Teenagers need attention and communication, it is very important to keep in touch with them. This problematic problem definitely needs to be addressed, children need to pay attention to both the parents they live with and the caregivers. “

When asked what help families of missing children most often need, D. Dimšaitė emphasized the importance of emotional and psychological help.

“People often call because they want to say more, what worries them. This is very painful, especially when children or teenagers are missing. Sometimes callers don’t know where to start, where to go, how that search should go. First of all, we recommend contacting police officers and all searches should start with that. When the police receive information about a lost case, the entire search process begins. “

The family situation is not enviable.

The family situation is not enviable.

According to the representative, his center is most useful for families facing such problems by providing psychological and emotional assistance.

“We have psychologists who are ready to help in any case, whenever parents or children need it.”

And what about families facing this problem helping other families who have recently been in this situation? D. Dimšaitė says this is also a very individual decision.
“Some families are more closed and reluctant to share those painful experiences, other families are more willing to cooperate and help people with a similar destiny. More often, however, when a child or adolescent appears after an escape accident, parents are happy that it happened and there is no more communication. “

It can also be noted in the media that there are sometimes messages about missing children and, in some cases, the parents themselves resort to asking for publicity and help to find the missing offspring. The specialist said that this is one of the most effective ways to find them.

“The dissemination of information should be as wide as possible across all media and the public is highly inclined to cooperate strongly. It also shows when there are exceptional cases where people come together so much through the technology of information such as through various social media sites to get very involved in the search process, share information and see that it is very effective. The more people see that information, the more likely they are to follow the environment. “

D. Dimšaitė also wanted to point out that the number 776 does not mean the number of individual missing children, but the number of cases, since a child can disappear more than once.

“People can be missing for more than a week, a month, a year, and therefore there are several cases. In fact, missing children generally appear quickly. However, there are also stories where searches take longer, such as several years. However, they are very isolated and there are not many such cases. Of course, it has been missing for two years and has not yet appeared, “he summarized.

The spokesperson emphasized that in the event of the loss of a child, a 24-hour toll-free helpline can always be called.

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