Samenvatting

Young people in residential health care are experimenting with sexual behavior and sexual boundaries just like other young people do. But unlike youth in ‘normal’ circumstances, they often face an increased risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of sexual problematic behavior. Professionals often find it difficult to deal adequately with sexual behavior. The ‘Flag system’ is a method that helps them to assess sexual behavior adequately by applying six criteria, and rate satiation with four different ‘flags’ (green = normal behavior, yellow = risky behavior, red = mildly sexual abusive behavior, black = severely sexual abusive behavior). It provides guidelines to react in a way that supports normal behavior and addresses problematic behavior. A set of drawings illustrate situations that range from normal sexual behavior to severely abusive behavior, which can be used to discuss with young people or with colleagues. The original Flag system was developed by Sensoa, a Belgian experts center on sexuality. The original version was developed for use with children from 0 to 18, and therefore an adaptation was necessary to fit the needs of adolescents in residential youth care.
In a 4-year project, a partnership of researchers, program developers and professional educators, all experts in sexual health, develops an adapted version of the Flag system. The project provided a theoretical underpinning for the method, and a conceptual framework of goals and activities for the training program that is mandatory for those who want to work with the Flag system in a professional context. Also, drawings and guidelines were adapted to the context of residential youth care. This version is currently piloted in twelve institutions for residential youth care. Also, schools for higher professional education in social work are involved in a number of project activities to enhance their training programs in order to improve knowledge, skills and comfort of future youth workers to discuss sexual matters with young people.