The case summarized In January last year, twins Mina and Mille Hjalmarsen (16) were found dead in an apartment in Spydeberg. In two years, the sisters visited twelve different institutions in Southern and Eastern Norway. The mother thinks that was very unlucky. The state administrator has investigated whether Mina and Mille received proper follow-up from child protection and the health system. The conclusion from the investigations will be presented on Wednesday. The girls’ mother is excited, and dreads hearing the conclusions. She believes that child welfare, Bufetat and the health system must improve their cooperation. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. On 8 January last year, twin sisters Mina and Mille Hjalmarsen (16) were found dead at an address in Spydeberg. Later it became clear that they probably died from heroin overdoses. In the summer of 2020, the sisters developed serious eating disorders. Later they had behavioral problems, and began experimenting with drugs. Over the course of two years, Mina and Mille visited twelve different institutions in Southern and Eastern Norway. It was very unfortunate, says the girls’ mother Kirsti Skogsholm. – There were no things that were organized anywhere. It was chaos from start to finish that I never thought I would experience within either the health sector or any other agencies that came into the picture. Kirste Skogsholm chose early on to be open about her daughters’ encounter with the health care system and child protection. Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news – Now the truth is coming out Around two weeks after Mina and Mille’s death, the State Administrator decided to investigate whether the sisters received proper follow-up from child protection and the institutions they lived in. Now both the Fossum collective, Helse Sør-Öst, and the child welfare service in Indre Østfold have been investigated. The report from the investigations will be presented at a press conference on Wednesday. – It will be terribly painful. Now, in a way, the truth comes out. I expect them to come up with a number of explanations as to why we ended up with the outcome we got, says Skogsholm. Mina Alexandra and Mille Andrea Hjalmarsen were only 16 years old. Photo: Privat This has happened since Mina and Mille died. On the night of Sunday 8 January, the police went to an apartment in Spydeberg. There, Mina Alexandra and Mille Andrea Hjalmarsen (16) were found lifeless. They died after an overdose of heroin. Later the same day, it became clear that the girls who were found had measures taken by child protection. A now 28-year-old man was arrested at the address where the girls were found, and was charged with negligent homicide. On the same day, a now 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with having sold drugs to the twins. Both deny guilt. Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) asks the Norwegian Health Authority to investigate all deaths linked to child welfare institutions in the past five years. The state administrator in Oslo and Viken opens an inspection to investigate whether Mina and Mille received proper help and follow-up from child welfare and the health system. Children’s ombudsman Inga Bejer Engh believes that the cooperation between the health system, child protection and schools is too poor. In an interview with TV 2, she said that it is urgent to put in place a system that works optimally. A packed Askim church says goodbye to Mina and Mille. In the obituary, the family writes “Two destinies, one life. Together you came into our lives, together you have now left us.” Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB The state administrator in Oslo and Viken decides to supervise Østfold Hospital. The police receive the final autopsy report after the twin sisters’ deaths. The police believe the girls died of heroin overdoses. The State Administrator in Vestland is taking over the ongoing supervision case, because the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken has dealt with several of Mina and Mille’s cases. Children’s Welfare believes the twin sisters did not receive the necessary help in the specialist health service. Child protection also admits that they have made incorrect assessments in their work. The mother of Mina and Mille, Kirsti Skogsholm, receives Mental Health’s transparency award. Skogsholm receives the prize for the courage and openness she has shown in the fight to highlight the shortcomings in mental health care. Eight seriously mentally ill girls, including Mina and Mille, have died in the last five years while living in a child welfare institution. The Norwegian Health Authority believes that all eight received a lack of health care before they died. The specialist unit for police cases will investigate the police’s work in advance of the deaths. The police failed to track the sisters’ mobile phones, despite employees at the institution Fossumkollektivet asking for it. The trial starts against a man in his 30s who is charged with sexual assault against Mina. The man pleaded not guilty to assault, but was later sentenced to prison for one year and two months. The specialist unit for police cases has opened an investigation against the East police district after the deaths. The police did not track the twin sisters’ mobile phones when they were reported missing around a day before they were found dead. Show more Fears of more deaths In autumn 2020, Mina, Mille and their mother moved into the Åsebråten children’s and youth psychiatric clinic in Fredrikstad to treat the girls’ eating disorders. They were allowed to stay there from Monday to Friday. Weekends had to be spent elsewhere, because they only received treatment on weekdays. Twelve different places in two years September 2020, Mina and Mille are admitted to the Åsebråten child and youth psychiatric clinic. In January 2021, the sisters will be discharged from Åsebråten and receive their first voluntary long-term placement in child welfare. In April 2021, the twins will receive their first compulsory placement in child protection. According to the mother, it was here that they started experimenting with drugs. March 2022 Mina and Mille are moving home. The mother believes that the girls got progressively worse when they were under the care of the child protection agency. In the autumn of 2022, the sisters will voluntarily move in with the Fossum collective in Indre Østfold. Mina and Mille lived there until they were found dead in January last year. In total, the twins visited twelve different institutions in two years. At the same time that Åsebråten tried to help the sisters, they developed behavioral problems, says Skogsholm. – If you then end up starting with drugs, then you won’t get any help in terms of mental health either, because then you have to be drug-free before you get, for example, trauma treatment, which my girls needed. Skogsholm believes that the child welfare service, Bufetat and the health service must work together better to avoid more similar deaths. – If we don’t sit down now and make some changes to the system we have, we will end up with more such stories. Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news Two men are charged Shortly after the girls were found dead, a man was charged with negligent homicide. Another man was charged with selling drugs to the sisters and leaving them in a helpless state. – They still have the status of accused, says police attorney Benedicte Granrud. Two men were charged in the case on the same day that Mina and Mille were found dead in an apartment in Spydeberg. Photo: Freddie Larsen The police failed to trace Mina and Mille’s phones when they were reported missing, despite the Fossum collective’s request. In November, it became known that the Bureau of Police Affairs started an investigation. They are investigating whether any employees of the police have done something criminal. – On the occasion of the case, the Bureau has obtained a number of documents from the East police district, which provide a basis for questioning several officials, both with the status of witness and suspect, writes prosecutorial investigation manager Kari-Anne Hille Valla in an e-mail to news. Awarded for openness Just four days after Mina and Mille died, Skogsholm and the daughters’ father decided to come forward with their story. – I wish I had had someone like me when I experienced having two such seriously ill children. I repeatedly asked if there were any relatives from whom I could get help. After a long interview Kirsti Skogsholm did with TV 2, she received over a thousand feedbacks. Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news In October, Kirsti Skogsholm was awarded the Mental Health Openness Award for her great courage and the openness she has shown in the struggle to highlight the shortcomings in mental health care in Norway. – It was one of the greatest things I have ever experienced. But it also shows how little we talk about this. – When I, standing in my greatest crisis and my greatest sorrow, choose to tell about how we experienced having two mentally ill children, it is clear that it was enormously important that they believed that what I did had a great effect on those who live with this here every single day.
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