ON EMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS

Some time ago I did the first columns about trying to encapsulate a Consultative Report some 140 pages long entitled ‘Voices of Children and Young People in Foster Care’ (July 2000).

It might seem that nearly two decades makes a lot of difference but you and I know that a coat of paint doesn’t always signify change, sometimes it just covers up the sperm splashes. At first glance it does not have anything to do with youth homeless services, but as an increasing number of kids in supported services and our prisons have graduated from the ‘Alternate Care System’. What we need to do is get hold of a copy of that report and review in the light of more recent problems of abuse to ensure that youth services do not continue to inflict the same abuses from family members now that they are in the care of complete strangers.

Continuing with the report and adding, in mitigation, that 99% of the District Officers I know would have no truck with some of the abuses discussed, I don’t believe that they can all be laid at feet of D.O’s in some simplistic negation of the facts. When child welfare departments are forced to truncate their range of services and reduce staff numbers because of some spurious economic necessity then in many ways they cannot be held responsible for some of the abuse that occurs within the system. The comment ‘I was only following orders’ can still be attributed to D.O’s but the fact is those orders were for economic reasons and not for any other.

The children themselves provide much of the evidence of dissatisfaction with children and young people in the way they are treated. Some of the briefer comments from different children in care.

D.O roles - what children and young people want;

‘ It would be good to be treated like humans. They (DoCS) just do what they want you to’

‘ She came six times and then she didn’t come, probably because she didn’t like us.’

She’s negative and thinks she knows best’.

‘ Good, but you don’t really need them.’

‘If they find the right family they don’t have to do anything else. I don’t need advice. I have heaps of people giving me advice.’

‘ DO? I don’t know how to do it though because I don’t see her and I don’t have her number.’

There are three outstanding Gems in the report provided by the young people themselves, each of them a telling reminder to us all.

Gem No.1 To the question ‘Do D.O’s make any difference’ one respondent came back with

‘ No they’re just there to analyse us. As soon as you have a problem they send you off like an object to be fixed’.

Gem No.2. To the question ‘What is the worst thing about foster care?’ the reply was

‘Talking to Doe’s and answering questions’.

Gem No.3. To the question about how they felt about their District Officer. The best reply of the lot, and in all innocence:

‘But she is professional, she doesn’t listen.’

If this report were not so serious these little Gems would have had me howling with laughter. I managed however to suppress reactions until I had read to the end of the report.

I would hope that young people do not say, will be unable to say the same things about us. I would hang my head in shame if this were a report about PYSE. I would like every worker in the field who thinks beyond the pay packet and has a genuine care for young people in their care that they too develop some empathy by obtaining an old copy and ensuring a wide readership.

If something goes wrong can we use the excuse?

‘I had to consider my Duty of Care’.