ALECOMM

Dear DoCS,

We have a problem. No, I take that back. You have a problem. Your employees have a problem. Your entire system has a problem. I understand that the idea of DoCS is a great thing – protect the helpless children, love them, care for them, provide them with safety they don’t get with their natural parents!  Or help out parents in need!  That’s why you have the Brighter Futures program isn’t it?

So, how are you managing to get it so utterly wrong?  How have you managed to deviate into such systematic failure?  I know you’ll claim you don’t.  That you do what you can, that you’re “short staffed”, “underfunded”, “inundated”.  So why do the cases you do take on become so deeply entangled in your lies, corruption and deceit?

I’ve spoken to many people recently regarding your short comings.  I shed many tears for their heart-breaking stories.  I felt a familiar pang of hurt and related to many of their stories.

It leads to me question your motives.  When children are unsettled, begging for their parents – unfit or otherwise – why do you continue to limit visitation?  Surely, DoCS, the children aren’t to blame for their parent’s mistakes.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying send children home to drug addicts and violent people, I’m saying let the children maintain reasonable contact with their parents.

I’ve witnessed friends of mine be put through the ringer at your accusations of child abuse due to emotional neglect via parental alienation.  So why do you think it’s just that you do it?

Why do you believe that fabricating or misinterpreting results or recommendations is ok?  Twisting the facts and further traumatising parents and children for what cause and to what end? A parent makes an honest mistake, you test a child and you discover you were wrong, so you lie and misread the results?  Or a pregnant foster child is ill in hospital with an infection she had sought help for numerous times and you claim she intentionally tried “a late term at-home abortion by means of dehydration”.  Yes, you did that and I’m sure there are plenty more stories along that same path.  I know several more but due to not getting the parent’s permission, I won’t talk about them.

How did you think it was ok to remove a child from her mother, due to the father being abusive (yet they weren’t even together), because she followed your recommendation?  Let’s not forget that you put the child at risk in their home where it is suspected they were sexually abused, yet you covered it all up once she was taken to the hospital!  How do you justify that?

Or, can you think for a second that a child discloses fear of one of their natural parents, using her age-appropriate language to suggest sexual abuse and having behaviours that back up their claims, yet you say it’s “not high enough priority”. When pressed about the issue, you are caught out lying?  Explain to us all, DoCS, how neglecting to investigate a child’s fear of their parent makes you “child protection”.  The police urging you to take action on their behalf isn't enough for you. Shouldn't the fact that a child is screaming for help be?

Moving on, though, let's talk about foster care. Yes, the good old failing foster system you so deeply believe in. Do you want to know what's wrong with your foster system? Everything. Absolutely everything. From your intake to your aftercare, the whole thing is ridiculous.

You take children from what you deem "unfit" homes and often times place them in even more toxic households. Households where children are abused physically, emotionally, sexually and mentally. When the children speak up, you tell you them they have no voice . You get "mental health nurses" and pass them off as psychiatrists, just for the sake of fabricated recommendations that the child's fears be deemed untrustworthy. 

Foster carers, while not all bad, get away with the most inappropriate behaviours, breach the terms and conditions of foster caring, yet reprimand them for harmless breaches they deem to be in the best interests of the children they learn to know and love as one of their own. 

Have you considered the detrimental effects it has on a child to have to have full police checks done for any sort of visitation with friends?  Forget birthday parties, it's way too embarrassing to ask for all the details to be run through a police check.  It's probably too late, anyway, not enough notice is given for a full background check to satisfy your bureaucratic bullshit.  Forget stability, kids!

Foster care means you'll probably be moved several times a year, unless you're extremely lucky!  Foster care treats children as disposable, worthless meal tickets.  What a great way to grow up, being tossed from home to home, attaching yourself to each and every carer, only to be ripped away at a moment’s notice.  Anything can happen to cause it and you allow it.

Foster kids have complained to you (I know for a fact) that they were forced to partake in religious activities that contradicted their own. When you found out, you outright accused the child of lying. You didn't sugar coat it, just simply said, "you're lying".  Why?  Because the foster carers were the daughter and son-in-law of the designated case worker. Yet two children who already knew each other and hang around at school can't be placed together because of "conflict of interest". Something smells like, hypocrisy here, DoCS.

You make many efforts to write out a full aftercare plan. You make it vague but explain the wording is simply because it's your official terminology . Truth be told, it's vague because you'll find any way out of helping out those who need your assistance once they turn 18 because they're "no longer your problem".  I'm yet to speak to a single person who received an aftercare plan that didn't come with a loophole.

What about your foster carers? Those who care for children with severe disabilities (and who usually care for more than just one at a time, I might add) getting their respite care funding stripped are left to deal with the strain and responsibility with no assistance. Children who suffer from life-threatening seizures should be given the right to a healthy foster carer. One who isn't physically and mentally drained when there are options for them to regenerate.

Or what about how you force foster parents to pay for essential specialist appointments. You know, the ones who charge $150 a session and are required regularly. Plus, travel expenses and accommodation if required.

I could go on forever, I truly could. Moral of the story if the entire system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Children are often worse off in foster care than they would be if you just let them be and let's be honest, you only really take the cases where your assistance isn't really required. 

The public should be safe in knowing that if they call you, they are taking a step toward doing the right thing for the children they are concerned about. Foster children should take comfort in knowing they have a home, not a house over their heads for the meanwhile. Parents should take comfort in knowing that if need be, they can contact you for support. There are so many ways the system is failing and today, I’ve only brushed the surface.

Now is the time to put the spotlight not on paedophiles (especially the ones you are aware of), nor the abusive parents, nor the drug-addicted parents. The time has come to put the spotlight on you. You are the ones that have the authority to protect our children, to serve our communities and to better improve the lives of literally thousands. Your time has come to step up or rack off. 

You only serve us as a good idea, not as a truly helpful entity.

Sincerely,

Concerned and Frustrated Citizen

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