Best of 2009 #3
December 3 Article. What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.
Unless you have uni level access to journals, you probably won’t be able to read this one. This is the austlii link to the case, that the article is about.
The article is about the increase in civil action being taken against government departments, both here in Australia and over seas. SB was made a ward of the state in 1971, when she was 4 years old after the breakdown of her family unit. She was sexually abused while in foster care, by a foster father. After this occurred she was placed in temporary foster care. When she was 16, she started living with her biological father, who also sexually abused her and raped her. She bore him two children – one in 1985 and one in 1988.
Officers from the Department of Child Welfare visited her several times in 1984 after allegations that her father was sexually abusing her, but they concluded their investigations and discharged her from wardship in 1986.
Several staff changes (a frustration for me!) meant that SB had no continuity of care but the Department knew she was isolated and vulnerable. She had not received any counselling for the sexual abuse perpetrated by her foster father and at the time of their 1985 annual review, she was five months pregnant to her biological father.
In mid 1994, she sought help from the police, left with her children to a refuge and her children were subsequently removed from her care. In 2000, with the assistance of a litigation guardian, she started proceedings against the State of NSW.
The judge awarded her damages of $26,400 for past loss of earnings and $195,000 for general damages. However, he stated that the Department’s failure to act did not amount to a breach of SB’s rights.
I have to admit that I didn’t Delicious it, or even talk about it with anyone outside of my tutorial group, but it still had a big impact on me as a professional. It made me conscious of the power that Social Workers have in people’s lives and the damage that can be caused.
Funnily enough, I spent all day (on my day off!) at a seminar about working with children of parents with a substance misuse problem. Lots of fun facts and figures about child protection. In all seriousness, it was good to go there and network – I even caught up with someone I haven’t seen since before Dexie was born! After listening to peadiatricians, social workers and researchers talk about children who are not thriving, have not formed attachements with their care givers, show indiscriminate affection and so on, it is so nice to come home to my own gorgeous, fortunate children.
Child protection is an area I’d like to work in, but I think Willow and Dexie need to be a bit older. The seminar helped confirm for me, my confidence in how I have raised/am raising my children. One person stated that children who are left alone experience fear. Not that I needed it, but this confirms my decision to keep my children close to me by co-sleeping, etc. Someone else stated that 80% of the nutrients taken by a child in her first year, go to the brain. Not that I needed it, but this confirms my decision to breastfeed my children to 12 months and beyond.
