Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Understanding parents and their drug use

I am responding to an article in today's advertiser written by Lauren Novak. The main point emphasised by Lauren in this article is that there is an epidemic of ice use amongst parents. That there needs to be a focus by the government on this problem is an understatement. There is no doubt that the excessive or daily use of any illicit drug will prevent a parent from parenting appropriately thus creating a risk for children.

The Child Protection Party experiences drugs as a risk factor in over 90% of the cases we deal with. Recently, a client asked me to seek out an appropriate rehabilitation program for her. I discovered that there was one program where the waiting period was six months and there were a range of other programs which represented drop-in centres rather than a live-in program. It was evident that drug rehabilitation programs were scarce and were not well funded.

Most of the parents I work with, who have a drug problem, which is most of them, are scheduled regular drug tests or have random drug tests regularly. This in itself creates a problem because if a person is unable to make a drug test because they are ill or feeling overwhelmed, the department will automatically suspect that they have been "using". This creates another layer of mistrust.

Some Department of child protection office's have a drug counsellor on the premises with the expectation that parents will attend drug rehabilitation counselling through this service. I think this is a valuable service and it should be offered at every centre where parents are being investigated and assessed. However, accessing the department's designated and preferred counselling service does not create compliance because clients become wary and mistrustful of these services. This means that parents often find it difficult to engage with the counsellor.

Parents find it difficult to cease drug taking when they spend most of their time discussing the drug problem. What needs to be discussed, but seldom is, are the other problems which influence the drug taking. This type of counselling requires the client to trust the worker, and the client to be assured that whatever it is said in front of the worker will remain confidential. Parents believe, and rightfully so, that statements they make to any other professional will find their way back to the department. This therefore prevents parents from being honest and open with the issues that have plagued them for most of their lives.

When a parent encounters a child protection service it is an opportunity for them to confront the traumas and abuse that the client has received, and in order for them to do so they need to be able to trust the service which has engaged with them. If that service though is a service which they do not trust then it is hard to imagine how they can experience a positive outcome.

Ultimately, we need child protection services to be a one-stop shop, where trust is established confidentiality is maintained, support is offered and working together to have the children returned is everyone's goal. It is sad though that the culture does not permit this sort of service to be offered. The culture of blame has to be eradicated and a sense of partnership needs to be established. Working with parents who trust the worker produces some amazing outcomes in a shorter time frame. Working in an environment where there is little trust will always produce negative outcomes.

Back to Lauren's article, the number of tests a parent has to do and the amount of counselling they receive is irrelevant if they fail to believe in and confide in the process. The challenge should be to create environments where people feel safe, where they can openly talk about their concerns without feeling and believing they will be punished for doing so.

There is hardly a parent I speak to who doesn't want to be a better parent for their children. For those of us who have never experienced an ice addiction will never understand the power and influence such an addiction can have on a person. For us to offer simplistic solutions to emotionally intense problems dismisses the experiences of victims. The experiences of many of the people whom I deal with range across the spectrum of all types of trauma. None of which I have ever experienced. Which most of us in the community also have not experienced. However, many of us are prepared to adopt the "get over it" mentality, without ever understanding what it is like for some of these people. By simplifying the problem we are undervaluing the experiences of those people who we want to help.

The Child Protection Party is working desperately to change the narrative so that we all can have a different perspective of what the issues are and how to resolve them. By becoming paternalistic and simplistic we are accomplishing nothing.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Child Protection Party is like no other political party

The time is approaching where there will be a change on the political landscape. People are tired of the two-party system and the influence that corporations, unions and other major players have on the decisions that are made by our politicians. As a community we need to be asking more from those who represent us in parliament. We need to have representatives who believe in the things that we believe in, the freedom to express ourselves the values of equality and fairness, and a desire for our politicians and our governments to be transparent.

There is an unrest in our community. It is fueled by the dissatisfaction that we have in our political leaders, and their inability to be able to understand who we are, what want, and a failure to deliver. In each community the dissatisfaction is pocketed in secular groups, where people can be heard crying to prevent Muslims from entering the country, or the construction of more coal mines, or the eradication of the Great Barrier Reef, or simply dissatisfied because they notice that their income is decreasing year after year. Some of these pockets are those who have given up on the Australian dream of owning their own home of having their own business or being able to send their kids to a better school.

As divergent as all these areas are there is one common thread and that is the lack of voice that these people have to be able to express what they think and how they feel in a way which resonates with those who make the decisions. It may not be possible to meet the demands of such a diverse group, but it is possible to listen to the arguments that they present and assess their value based on the decision-maker’s ethics and principles. The problem is however, that often we don’t know what those ethics and principles are, or who drives them and manipulates them.

In the United States they are holding town hall meetings where constituents are presenting to their representative complaints about the current policy direction and decisions being made. Many of these town halls turn into a disaster where there is only shouting and arguing from both sides. It is rare to see a meeting where the politician just listens. It is fascinating how politicians are more interested in the next election cycle than they are in the issues which concern their constituents. They often find themselves confronted by a set of values and beliefs which they themselves don’t hold. They then argue and berate others with the view that that will change the others point of view. My experience is that the first thing we need to do is simply listen. Only then can we begin to ask questions.

There are many people in the community who will not change their view regardless of what we say to them. They want to believe that the world is flat, so we must accept that that is how they see their world. There is another group of people though who hold the same beliefs that you may or similar principles and ethics, but they also hold other views that perhaps are not factual or realistic.

I am reminded of a woman who recently stated that the new healthcare act in the US is now cheaper and means that her son will be able to receive the medication that he requires. She expressed her gratitude to President Trump for making this change. However, the new healthcare act is still being debated and she is currently living under the affordable care act and it is the affordable care act which has made those changes that have impacted her son. People will believe what they want to believe no matter how inaccurate their beliefs may be.

Recently a woman contacted me complaining about our adoption policy. She has a foster child and clearly would wish to adopt this child. She presented the biological mother as being highly inadequate as a parent and therefore never having the right to parent her child. It may be well true that from her perspective she had the right to adopt this child because the mother may never change. Even though that premise needs to be accepted what was not understood was that not all situations are the same as hers. As we have discovered at the Child Protection Party, one policy, one idea, one initiative does not meet the needs of the whole. What was important for me to understand, while having this conversation, was the basic principle that we are all acting in the child’s best interest.

We may vary on our interpretation but it is the principal that needs to be supported. As a political party the Child Protection Party is committed to the principles of equity, fairness and transparency. There is no wavering from these principles. Every decision that we make is directed by these important principles. The foster mum believes that she is acting in the child’s best interest, and we understand that and we support that value. Because our policy states that a child should not be considered for adoption until they have been in care for five years, those people who wish to adopt immediately once they became the carer of the child will find that aspect of our policy unacceptable. However, in this case, the bulk of our policies around foster care need to be considered and not for the foster care policy to be discounted because it just doesn’t fit with this person on this one occasion.

It is imperative to understand that what is important is the fundamental principles we hold, that we are not beholden to any other influences, that we believe in the direction that we are taking, all of this with one singular view, to improve the outcomes for all children.


We ask ourselves therefore, how different are we from the other political parties, major and minor? We believe that we are as different as day and night. We will never be compromised on our principles. We can’t be bought nor manipulated. We understand that where we are at the moment is nowhere near where we wish to be. As a political force in fact, we have no influence or power at this particular time. We are more than dreamers, because we believe that all children should feel safe and be cared for appropriately. It is this goal which drives us. Nothing will prevent us from attaining the power and influence we need in order to assure each child in this country that they will be listen to, they will be heard, that their parents will be listen to and will be heard, and that politicians who make the decisions that affect children will hear what you have to say.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Stop Bullying Me

Stop bullying us.

All of us who care about children have to make a decision concerning the way we are bullied when confronting child protection workers about their behaviour and their decisions. We have to say stop bullying us.

When the department tells you that you are a bad parent tell them to stop bullying you. When you are told that you are not doing enough to have your children returned to you tell them to stop bullying you. When they are not listening to you tell them to stop bullying you. When you are working hard to have your children returned to you and doing everything that the department has asked of you and they don’t acknowledge what you have done tell them to stop bullying you. When your past is raised as an issue of concern tell them to stop bullying you. When you are spoken to in a demeaning manner tell them to stop bullying you. When you are explaining to them what has been happening for you and they fail to listen to you tell them to stop bullying you. When you are told to attend an appointment and it is not convenient for you tell them to stop bullying you.

I am sure that you will be able to find other occasions where you could say stop bullying me. Often we need to find ways to stand up against those who make unreasonable demands upon us. I understand that often you might feel powerless, hopeless and helpless. That you might need to think a little about what is happening to you at that particular time, take a deep breath, and consider what you need to say that is going to make you feel empowered. It is possible for you to gain your power back without yelling or denigrating others. You can use well-chosen words which informs others of how you are feeling.

My point is, that under no circumstances should you be feeling manipulated or controlled by anyone. It is your right to have a voice, to be heard and for your feelings to be acknowledged. Anyone who ignores these rights needs to be told that they should stop bullying you.

I understand the conflict and pressure most parents experience when they are confronted by a child protection worker. The most natural response is to be aggressive and to feel angry. Because aggression is an unhealthy response we need to find other ways to respond to the behaviours of others that enhances our feelings and makes them aware of how their behaviour has affected you. In many cases, the person you are addressing may not care about how you feel or the impact their behaviour has on you. There will be some people however, who will hear what you have to say and will modify their behaviour accordingly.

It is not as simple as telling someone to stop bullying you. You need to think about how you will respond if that person asks you what they were doing that was bullying you. You therefore need to be aware of the behaviour of that person and how that behaviour made you feel. To best prepare yourself for using this strategy, think about times when you have been confronted by behaviour that has caused you to feel bullied. Now think about how to describe that behaviour. Think about a range of feeling words that would describe how that behaviour made you feel. Once you have done this you are then armed with an appropriate tool to confront the unreasonable behaviour of the worker.


 See the video

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Being Still and Listening

When I first used the internet it was the early nineties and I used a modem that took the length of the desk and pinged loudly as I dialed the number of a University in Iceland. I can't remember how we came to contact Iceland in particular, but I do remember that it was an exciting time. The computer screen was a green mono which pumped out asci text in a granulated form. Not long after that WYSIWIG began to impose itself through the first internet browser Mosaic. I am not attempting to give you a history lesson in the internet and its evolution but when I look at where it is twenty five years later I am amazed. Back then we could never have imagined that I would be able to sit here and type into a program which could easily be read by anyone who had a computer or even more amazing, a phone.

With the technology and all that it offers there is one further observation I would like to make. Everyone now has a voice. It use to be that those who shouted the loudest would be the only one's heard. To some extent that is still true but those who are a little shy and don't feel confident shouting are now able to express themselves and have the world take notice. All of these people have something to say. They can, not only be heard, but they can influence what other people may think, or they can create a discussion which includes thousands of people who wouldn't ever have participated in the past.

As these plethora of ideas manifest themselves throughout cyber-space we are faced with the negative impact of ideas which foster a particular volume of hate and fear. I support notions of free speech but when that freedom is used to denigrate another person en masse I must object. With this new found freedom we have not learnt to treat each other with respect. The horror which is bred through "freedom if thought" has morphed into a cacophony of hate and fear which spreads like a virus.

The challenge now is to build a wall of resistance to all that confronts us which denigrates and humiliates others. We have all sat back and watched the tidal wave of opinion cascade upon us. The time has come to monitor the impact on our communities to dispel the hatred and fear and present a voice which looks for positive change and celebrates the bravery which is integral to the human soul.

When I slide though my Facebook pages I notice the resentment and the negativeness which governs the embedded thinking of those who feed my page with prejudice and ignorance. I often object so strongly to some of the posts that I unfriend those people immediately. However, I also understand that benefit of maintaining some of those connections because they inform me about the community with whom I wish to communicate.

Recently I read a report that stated that the best way to confront bigoted thinking is to have the protagonist spend ten minutes with the person they are denigrating. Conversely it is also true that if we want to understand the negativity which exudes from some of these people we need to listen to what they have to say. It is through the context of people's lives that we will better understand them. The challenge then is to engage with people no matter how much we may disagree with their point of view.

It is important these days to wonder about what informs thinking and what facts support what is being offered.

Yes, we are being bombarded with opinions and ideas from those who were once voiceless. The wall of resistance is not about pushing back, it is something completely different.

We need to be still and LISTEN.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

What is "wrong" with politics in Australia

What is "wrong" with politics in Australia.

I could begin by being blatantly aggressive and say "everything". However, when I look at other countries I consider that as bad as our political system is it probably isn't as destructive as some. There is a mood of community unrest with our political system. Or is it something else? Perhaps it is the way the 'have nots" are relegated to the "never going to have" category and that people are becoming uncomfortable with the prospect that they will never achieve financial security, they will never own a home, they will never be able to send their children to the best schools, that they will have to retire on very little income, that they have been forgotten and discounted by their representatives.

The disdain for politicians is based on the politicians lack of engagement. Most people couldn't tell you who their local Federal and State members are. Until an election is on the horizon do they appear, to tell us how brilliant they have been and what policies they are now presenting that we need to accept as being the latest best thing for "us all". They fail to tell us that there real interests lie with their base, those who will vote for them no matter what they say or do, or a survey states that the electorate will vote for a particular issue because of the electorates demographics.

The days are limited where a politician can warm the political seat and provide very little community engagement. We should be demanding more from our politicians. We should be communicating with them about those issues which concern us, better education for our kids, increase in the minimal wage, better health care services, our views on immigration and unemployment etc. The problem is that many people are not concerned enough until an issue directly impacts them.

The Child Protection Party is aware that it isn't until a child is removed that parents realise the implication government policies and those enacting those policies have on their lives. We live in a world of complacency and ignorance which prevents us from taking action in ways which will determine how our lives are going to be impacted. We are self-centred, egocentric and void of the impact the decisions of politicians have on our lives. We have in the past accepted the status quo, the notion that we have to accept what is dished out to us because the insignificant have no resources to fight back. No one cares. I am don't matter.

We then have the rise of the special interest emotive parties. Those who play to the fears that are embedded in so many of us but lays dormant until we are told that it is in our best interest to present our uniqueness by disrespecting those whom we identify as being different. These politicians are as insignificant as those who present us with blandness, right and left politics. Yet it is this brand of politics which receives the coverage further fueling their influence and power.

What we need is a new political movement which focusses on the potential that exists in all of us, a party which represents the best in people regardless of where you come from. A party which confronts the power differential and provides a voice to those who feel powerless. We need a party such as the Child Protection Party which is dedicated to Fairness, Equity and Transparency. A party where politics is not about special interest groups, party allegiances,  nor personal gain but is about the concerns of the voiceless.

I was watching "Question Time" recently and reflected on how abusive our politicians are of each other. I know that to a large extent this is a show. Later on in the evening many of them will be joking about what was said in parliament about the other. Does this mean that the rugged Aussie needs to witness political combatants verbally bashing each other so that we can feel represented. If we witnessed this behaviour in a school yard we would be appalled. What ever happened to a sensible debate based on facts rather than verbally assaulting the other. Fortunately not many people I know watch question time but it does tell us how our politicians view their roles. They see themselves as having to defend their version of the "holy grail". To do otherwise would be seen as weak and ineffectual.

The Child Protection Party confronts all these stereotypes by presenting an alternative. The alternative is non-combative in the conventional sense. We are not going to name-call and denigrate others so that we can feel superior or powerful. We have one mission and that is to represent all our constituents and colleagues with dignity and respect regardless of how you choose to respond to us. We will never compromise our principles. We will always be present to make sure that your views are represented. If we disagree with your views because they are different to ours we will accept that, and we will respect you for those views. We will listen to you but we in turn expect you to listen to us.

There is a new player on the block. We are determined to make a difference. Join us.