THE MCFD GUIDANCE SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONS /

What I am coming to believe is that many social workers do not know what is expected of them as they perform their work. Most of them have entered their careers with honourable intentions to help people, seniors, adults, children and families. Those social workers who choose to go into child protection are motivated to enable families and to protect children.

When case after case surfaces wherein the action of the social worker is challenged by parents and it becomes clear that such action is contestable because it flies in the face of reasonable, objective, social work practice, the guidance system has malfunctioned.

THE SECRET SHAME - A BIT MORE / 537

Tim Korol, "The Secret Shame" - CBC photo

Yesterday I wrote about Tim Korol’s written report called “The Secret Shame.” That was a month of May story. Korol, back in December 2010 went public with his criticisms of the Social Services of Saskatchewan for which he served as an assistant deputy minister. He had 16 years experience as a Saskatoon policeman and 10 years experience with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission before being hired to provide advice to the province’s child welfare system with regard to family interventions and placement of children in foster homes.

What he experienced was resistance to his recommended and required changes because he was deemed an outsider. 

TIM KOROL & SASK'S 'Arrogant' Child Welfare System / 536

CBC Photo: Tim Korol, Dep Min for 12 mo

On May 4, 2011 columnist Angela Hall’s story was printed in online and hard copy news sources all over the country. She wrote about Tim Korol, a former social services worker in the province of Saskatchewan. Granted he worked there for only one year but that was all that he could stomach. Korol is a former policeman who in the course of police duty saw a good many human unpleasantries yet he has said about his experience with social services in Sask., “I have been emotionally scarred by what’s going on in social services.”

He has recently released a 40-page report entitled, 'The Secret Shame.' He held a press conference and then he submitted his report to the provincial government. In that report Korol relates his concerns about the child welfare system in Canada. The title is apt. Good choice. Blogs such as this one have a limited readership. The secret shame of child welfare, specifically the stories that spin from child apprehensions and the unfortunate cases within the fostering program, are unknown to the general public because they are undisclosed.

AN APPEAL TO SOCIAL WORKERS / Part 391 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

AN APPEAL TO SOCIAL WORKERS

Here is my entreaty to social workers engaged in child protection. When you reflect upon the cases in which you are now or have been involved, and if within that list you readily identify families which would benefit from being together rather than apart and you have the means to affect that reconciliation, do all that you can to insure that this happens. So much rests with you. You control destinies. That seems a frightening responsibility.

Logo of National SW month for NASW

Anyone occupying a role which owns the weight and the power of the child protection worker within our society, has to have the right stuff if he or she is confidently and effectively to protect the rights of children, safeguard the rights of families and parents and live with a deep contentment at the end of the day. If you see many cases where harm has been inflicted upon innocents, it is understandable that a callousness develops toward the responsible caregivers. How discriminating you must be to preserve your own authentic objectivity. How discerning you must be so that can separate fact and evidence from story and assumption. 

You are a member of the public and the public depends upon you front line people to be so careful with your invested power for our sakes, the children among us, children who may require food, opportunity, protection. And by referring to “our sakes” I also intend our families, parents of children, parents who require understanding, a listening ear, parents who require advice & counsel and encouragement, grandparents whose grandchildren are their joy and for whom they hope. Make all of your action choices wisely and be gentle with us please.

SOCIETY BENEFITS FROM A STABLE FAMILY / Part 289 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Any Family

Life begins at home and wisdom should begin there too. Home and family is where so much time is spent and so much personal interaction occurs. The home is the primary and most vital factor in a child's development into a mature and stable member of society. The family is the basic building block or unit of society, thus the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families that comprise it. In most families the nurturing is genuine and healthy. Sadly in other families, parents have few parental resources or have personal troubles that disable them for parental responsibility.

The parents have been what the child has not yet been – both young and old. Parents should have accrued wisdom from situations that the child has not yet experienced. So it is the parents' responsibility to create an environment in which they can pass wisdom on for the child to readily learn life lessons. It is the parents' responsibility to treat the child with dignity and respect. It is the child's responsibility to honour parents and to listen and to obey and to learn. A child who learns these home life lessons becomes enrichingly wise for a life that can be genuine, wholesome, prosperous. This is the foundation of good family and community relationships.

Given my faith background you will understand why I consider it to be significant that the fifth of ten fundamental commandments given by God to a society of people is this one. Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."
Parents are also given direction in Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Society benefits from a stable family unit. A person's response to government derives from the parent-child relationship. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and obeying parents will result in a society stable enough to promote development of the whole person. That's why forced removal of a child should be employed by social services as the last resort for child neglect or even child abuse, and seldom or never used to enforce any other parental compliance to regulations.