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| Scott James X Factor contestant |
score: Fiona Johnson lyrics: Valerie Foley
singer: Scott James
To See the World through my eyes
It changes shape and it changes size.
It’s not quite the world you see.
If you could find a way
To look around inside my mind
Maybe you would understand me.
I’m not blind but I can almost see.
I’m not deaf but things sound strange to me.
I’m not trapped but it’s hard to feel free.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
It’s hard for my to try
to think things through, or talk like you.
Everything can be a blur sometimes,
But if you walk along beside me,
Hold my hand and guide me
Together any mountain we can climb.
Cause I’m not blind but I can almost see.
I’m not deaf but things sound strange to me.
I’m not trapped but it’s hard to feel free.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
Dreamin bout my future
And it’s brighter than you know
I’ll get there on a different road
When I am ready to go
I don’t need pity. I don’t need tears.
I just need someone to help me understand my fears.
Tell me you believe in me.
Let me know that I’m okay
Help me feel safe and warm
And I will find my way.
Cause I’m not blind but I can almost see.
I’m not deaf but things sound strange to me.
I’m not trapped but it’s hard to feel free.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
Imagine what it’s like to be me.
Scott James is Autistic (Aspergers)and after reaching the final 50 of X-Factor UK, he recorded this Autism single. It was released on April 2nd 2011, coincident with Autism Awareness Day. All funds from its sale are donated to Autism Awareness UK. Have you ever wondered what it is like to have Autism? If you wish to have a brief musical treat as well as peak into an autistic spirit, please listen. I posted this story on January 23rd as well with a fuller explanation of Aspergers.
We start a new week,but the issues are drearily familiar. The systemic abuse of children and parents by accusation and attrition.
ReplyDeleteToday I am not going to write about autism, nor will I write about the merits and demerits of the case about little Ayn. Nor will I write about the sort of tactic one might employ in trying to negotiate the child welfare labyrinth. No, today I want to write about the bigger picture. What on earth has happened over the last thirty years to transform the child welfare system from being imperfect but manageable and reasonably fair, to being totally broken and incapble of guarding the best interests of children.
Unless we find ways of fixing the system, there is no use in knowing the law and how it is supposed to work. What we need to do is to define what is broken and why and to persuade the responsible people to fix it. There are a number of components causing the breakdown and they cannot be fixed by throwing money at them. In fact throwing more money at them might well make it worse. Here are some of the components. 1.The erosion of social work skills and the lack of basic social work skills and ethical requirements in protection employees. 2. The resultant handing over of social work functions to other professions. Because a great deal of the work is governed by statute, the social workers have increasingly handed over their funcitons to lawyers. They no longer know, or care to know what the law requires apart from some basic routines,like making presentation reports. When they hand over so much control to lawyers, two things happen. First the organisational culture becomes adversarial and non-conciliatory. Why? Because this is the longstanding culture of the legal profession and the courts. This is the best way for lawyers to generate revenue. Another way is to stack a hearing with as many witnesses as possible and quibble every point, until cases last for years. Judges are so steeped in this culture that they are not even aware of what they are doing. They can no longer apply the law as it is written, no matter how much they would like to. They begin to see themselves as victims, constantly faced with the choice of two evils. Keep kids in lengthy limbo, or risk returning them to an unsafe home. Continued
Continuing the reasons for the broken system. We have seen what can happen. The ministry has unlimited funds and legal clout and few parents can muster the funds for a proper defence. Cases are before court for years, leaving children committed to care for long periods without due process. This leaves the regional directors with total control. If a day of reckoning comes, they can pull out of the case with no consequence.
ReplyDelete3.Another big contributor to systemic dysfunciton is the Child Family and Community Services Act. It is so long and complicated that few lawyers and judges know it thoroughly and most social workers don't even pretend to learn it. As one senior supervisor told me recently, when I pointed out his duty under the law. "We don't follow the law, we follow policy." When this act was brought in, it was so complicated that 72 senior protection staff were taken out of direct service for quite a long time, just so that they could learn how to use it. The courts virtually ground to a standstill and they have never recovered.
4 Because social workers are no longer trained in basic protection skills, they have become bureaucratic functionaries, whose job is to broker all their work to other agents. They no longer know how to do a parental capacity assessment. They do not even know that the components of a parental capacity assessment and a risk assessment are basically the same thing and need identical skills to complete. They farm out assessments to psychologists and community service agencies. They do not know when it is appropriate to supervise visitation and when it is not. They do not know how to work constructively with foster homes and how to use them as resources to natural parents and how they can help in assessments.
5.The solutions are simple and logical and follow from understanding the causes of the problems. The biggest hurdle is to get the members of the legislative assembly and the top echelons of the ministry to admit that the system is broke. They need to understand that systemic fixes will not work and throwing money at the problems is not the answer. They need to provide leadership in defusing the adversarial culture. They need to guarantee a programme of core training skills for social workers, so that they can work with confidence and fairness. They need to emphasise ethical practice from top to bottom of the organisation. They need to critically examine the over use of lawyers, psychologists and contracted workers.
Until there some fundamental changes, children like the Bayne kids and the Derek's children do not stand a chance. Tomorrow, I will write about the different things a social worker must legally consider in assessing risk.
Outstanding song and presentation.
ReplyDelete