What do you think about this article on family breakdowns and foster care crisis?

â™¥ Candice Michelle â™¥

I Know the child protection system is full of having children in care that have been abused or at risk of being abused. there needs to be more help for families that have at risk cases with their children.

Instead of removing them and putting them in to care they could create a safe house with social workers around the clock to check on these parents and give them advise when is needed and make sure the parents have appropriate food, clothing, money etc but if the children keep re entering the DOCS care i would then make long term arrangements to keep the children with other family members for the best interest of the child and their welfare and needs the child comes first but i think DOCS should help educate the parent from right to wrong and have a support person for the parent

i think there needs to be more education about abuse and how to prevent it in the future and how people can break the cycle of abuse with their own families, i know not all children are abused some are at risk but there are a lot that have been abused and this can traumatize children for life and cause long term detrimental effects on the child long term.

We need to educate the Public and make a stand to stop child abuse

Some parents need to keep their hands to theirselves and stop the abuse from happening and some parents that a crackheads need to stop and i don't believe crackheads deserve a second chance

Just my opinion

Opedial

There is over representation of Aboriginal children in Canada as well.

In Saskatchewan, there are cases of up to 12 children in one home. As well, children have had to sleep for weeks in daycares and a few times in a hotel.

Two main solutions:

1. Prevention: Get involved with families and help mentor them and other prevention while the children still live there.

2. Completely smash the patriarchal system that exists in all forms, and rebuild with a more equitable system. This includes how government runs, how private sector runs. Reduce the number of people living without resources to parent. Increase the number of programs to help people parent. Increase the number of treatment centres so people do not have to wait to get in.

This is just a start. The short fix is more and more foster homes, but that is only a short term solution.

kookooberry

I know that in our county (and things vary from county to county and state to state) they have social workers who work with at risk families to keep the kids OUT of care. These workers look at what the family needs and help them to get services. But, as they say, you can lead a horse to water... :-(

A lot is said about social workers trying to meet quotas and all that sort of stuff, but in our county we have more foster parents than children who need placement. The reason? Because the agency is trying to do everything they can to AVOID taking children. They understand that the children *want* to be with their families and so they are doing their best to serve the families while allowing the children to remain in their home. This is a huge change! It used to be remove the children *first* and then worry about the rest later.

Of course, in cases where the children are CLEARLY in danger, they have to remove them, but, again, the priority is to work to get the family back together.

I just wanted to put that out there because it seems like social workers are regularly villified. IMO, they are damned if they do (take kids) and damned if they don't (take kids).

HappyMomAnna

I was in a dysfunctional relationship for 15 years, and had two children. There were a variety of things that led to a cycle of "drama" and eventually abuse. I didn't have resources to change the situation Until the Police informed me that the next time I called for help they would arrest us both and take our children to foster care.

When I made the decision to change the situation -- the Help and assistance I was assured would be there ran the other way. All of the services and support promised before I made my decision turned into attitude and instead of being an abused wife (before I changed things) I became a "Divorced Woman" with "My Side of the Story"

My adult life STARTED in 1981 during the last recession. That was the year two starry eyed kids of 18 and 19 got hitched!

The first thing that happened was that our "college" funding was cut to nearly nothing, we were now a two people family working min wadge jobs and no longer qualified for the same kinds of loans because we actually made more then the "poverty" level working at Wendys 30 hours a week with no health insurance.

I spent the majority of the 1980's just wondering if we might ever make more then min wadge? He started drinking. I thought that Married People had children and wanted to follow the natural steps of building a family... My father started as the Shop Boy and worked his way to Journeyman Millwright, my mother stayed home and took care of the children.

When I started my adult life society was changing and people lived together, woman had rights and children belonged in Day Care. I didn't want my children in day care--I wanted a family that had two parents with a mother to greet the children after school.

I spent that 15 years with two children one year apart in a world where people could actually **THINK** let alone dare ask me if my children had the same daddy? And if my husband was their father?

When our life fell apart it was far too easy for those around us to simply say, "You were just too young! You should have finished college. You must have grown-apart."

The truth is that He and I could have had a beautiful life together Had we been viewed as two young people committed to our values and decisions to Get Married and have a traditional family.

If I could Change the World I would:

#1-- Encourage society to STOP believing 17 year old's Can't Fall in Love and be committed. How many Young people express and feel this kind of love--only to be laughed at, put down and told it's not possible to be in love forever when you are 17? How many children are born to single mother's just because that mother was "too young" to be committed?

#2-- Family Wadges, if we could have even found a job where there was a way to Become someone the hard way--work up from the bottom and be valued by employers. The Idea of starting out as the "Shop Boy" and working up to Journeyman was over, and we were further penalized by our Commitment to Each other in the fact that without that college degree we could only expect to work at Wendy's.
Today the workforce is either Well Paid Jobs or Minimum Wadge. The "haves and have nots" We need to return to creating futures for something between--where it is possible to learn a skill or trade on the job.

#3-- Had ONE person along the way, noticed the spiral in our lives and stepped in with more then Judgements with advice and emotional support I am 90% sure our family would not have ended up a statistic. Had the Police contacted a "community advocate" or social worker the FIRST time they came to my home, it might have made all the difference. Instead when the Police came the first time it was: Money to get him out of jail, money to see the mandatory counselor and money to pay the "Fine" during the 3-years of probation. Not one action from the "system" the first time I called for help was designed to HELP our family stay together--and everything that did happen only Took Away from what little we did have to meet the needs of our children. In my world it wouldn't have gone that way--Instead when I called that first time, society would have taken notice and offered US anything besides a set of new bills we couldn't afford before let alone after.

I believe that ONE key to changing this continuing spiral of Family is to stop damaging it--Especially, for those who Choose to Try. My experience has been to see the Interventions we offer are Punitive rather then supportive.

I believe that the Mother of my Adopted Foster Children faced the same kinds of problems-except that she was alone to do so... After all Young people don't have the right to be committed and married. You can't access the benefits if married and often benefits are lost when two people decide to get married.

The mother of our children left the hospital with a new baby, and a 4 year old she couldn't even care for--with no real place to live... Because she had positive drug test at the delivery she left the...

Snickette

I feel there needs to be a lot more prevention and education. I also feel that action needs to be taken sooner to prevent the levels of abuse experienced by some foster children. Many kids are left in unsafe and abusive homes far too long and once they are subsequently taken into care their care needs are so high that residential care and therapies are often needed.
I truly feel that a zero tolerance approach to child abuse needs to be taken. It's one thing to understand and address the causal issues but when it puts a childs life and safety at risk there needs to be less talk more action.

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