This week’s question has been inspired by the country’s leading McKenzie friend for family law cases, Shaun O’Connell.
With so much to do and so much to learn, the system has yet to come to terms with the human condition, in all its glory and complexity. A Guest Blog, written by Professors Featherstone and Morris on Community Care called “Hostile parents and an alternative view” talks about the misunderstandings that can occur inside the family justice system. They say:
“For over two decades researchers have found that most families and parents want to ‘do right’ by their children with only a small minority seeking to actively hurt or harm their children.
There is no empirical evidence that this analysis needs to change today Indeed our research, alongside that of many others, indicates that families are a rich source of potential support for their children and relevant and appropriate help is welcomed by them”.
So, do you think that families are misunderstood or are social workers simply reacting to a new wave of unexplainable anger sweeping families nationwide?
Possible answer: Whilst there may be families who genuinely have anger related issues towards authority figures and social workers, the majority of parents and children are going to react to the way they are treated in the first instance and have no desire to be unreasonable. The question then becomes, how adept are social workers at understanding anger, in any form, and usually motivated by something other than a personal attack or conscious desire to be unreasonable?
You can see Shaun’s response in the article we linked to.
Very interesting.
If one studies the curriculum followed by social workers, one quicky finds that most of is about social policy and very little to do with people skills.
Also the first group of social workers to qualify with degree status is only a few years ago.
Before that social workers tended to come from the lowest level of education.
Research also showed that 55% of social workers said they had been abused as children themselves.
They may have gone into the job to make a difference, but most carry the baggage and see all parents as abusers.
This invariably is projected onto parents who sense it and react back using the emotion of anger.
I had friends who went into social work and their whole personalities changed within 6 months- from ordinary down to earth people to Gods who everyone and especially service users are to bow to, and respect. Suddenly given the power over other peoples lives, they became draconians.
It does not help either when social workers switch off the human emotion button., because they expect parents and children to do the same.
If a parent shows emotion they are labelled abusers- like telling your own creation- your child- that you love them = emotional abuse. There are many cases of this as we all know. Give your own child a hug, when it is in the care of the state is seen as abuse by some social workers.
It is this dehumanising of service users by social workers that is cause for concern.
It mirrors Hitler and the SS, Lebensborn program where “best interests of the child” originated from.
2011 all over Britain social workers are referred to as SS.
This title was earned of course.
But rather than social workers ask why service susers see them as SS agents, they react to the label.They need to ask why are they labelled so?
Many social workers also use methods used by controllers and wonder when parents and children react to their authority.
Social workers are not trained properly to listen. They document what they want and then refuse to correct it, lest they be seen to have made a mistake.
it is not that people do not like authority- it is the manner in which social workers operate that sparks parents and children off.
A child the other day referred to social workers as thieves of the night.
The social worker asked her why and the child responded, “well you came and stole me from my mummy in the middle of the night and took me to a strange place, scaring me.. now 10 years later you tell me my mummy did nothing wrong and I can go home. This is the best day of my life, but why did you keep me in that place for 10 years? and even kept me from seeing my mummy for a whole year at one point, leaving me to think she was dead.”
the social worker asked why the child treated him with respect on that day and never before? The child responded- you are allowing me home, that why. It is the happiest day of my life.
Pingback: McKenzies coming to the Rescue of Litigants in Person and Parents whose Children got Snatched « Victims Unite!