We have the right and the the responsibility to QUESTION EVERYTHING.

High ranking officials of public service systems MUST face direct and probing questions in order to identify the truth. Those who work on behalf of the people have a responsibility to provide answers that satisfy the people. This is the way to effect changes to our broken MCFD.

 An MCFD that is truly working for the people would not avoid accountability and responsibility to the people. Client families have a right to question inconsistencies in MCFD practices. They deserve to have their questions received and processed with sincerity instead of being responded to as an insult or insubordination.

MCFD must not be allowed to hide behind their internal, bureaucratic “complaints resolution” process nor use the court system to beat clients into submission.

Social workers must be held to account for the damage they do to the families they traumatize. Clients must be provided with an avenue to ensure disciplinary actions are taken against incompetant social workers.

When social workers must ’put your money where your mouth is’ then perhaps they will make decisions to benefit their clients.

Just saying.

ONLINE petition to REFORM MCFD

Author Dianna Holden is writing a book of her experiences growing up as a child in the care of MCFD. She would like to include the stories of others’ expriences  and wants to hear from foster parents, client families, etc. Your story can be anonymous, but please include in your story what you think can be done to improve the system of services to vulnerable children and families.

The purpose of this book is to generate a dialog of problem solving and positive change.

If you would like to share your story and your suggestions for change, please visit http://www.worldwidepeoplelocators.com and send an email to the attention of Dianna Holden.

Or phone: 1.877.212.1294 or 1.877.504.4422

Doctors are required to register with the College of Physicians. Would you go to one who was not registered?

Social workers, who have far reaching powers and authority in our communities are NOT required by law to register with the B.C. College of Social Workers nor the Canadian Association of Social Workers. The government expects that they will VOLUNTARILY register with the BCCSW, the organization LEGISLATED to regulate social worker activities in our communities. The government forces us to turn to social workers who, although they have the potential to impact our lives as much as any doctor, are not regulated.

Please sign the petition Here to tell our government we want more accountability for our social workers!

On behalf of all B.C.’s vulnerable children & families — THANK YOU!

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1690967#ixzz0qrk10ywW

Shout out for reform of B.C.’s Ministry of Children & Family Development!

Please sign the online petition here: REFORM MCFD

There seems to by an underlying misconception here that ”T” is a monster.

Under normal circumstances when his ‘illness’ is in remission or medications help him to manage, he is a thoughtful, artistic individual who enjoys camping, paintball and listening to music with his friends.

After many years in an excellent program, which helped to stabilize him and in which he began to learn some basic life skills, he ‘aged out’ into a world of responsibilities he had next to no capacity to manage on his own.

Question: when you put a person with mental health issues into a correction facility with others who have committed a crime, what do you think he will learn? He calls the correction center ‘con college’ where he is has learned all the different ways to commit myriad petty crimes. Wonderful. That’s just the information we want people with a limited cognitive capacity to learn, right?

For the record: the court order indicates the MCFD agreed there was no legal finding for a need of protection from the parents. We are not on trial in this situation. Despite the potential for greater tragedy, “T” did not hurt (physically) anyone in the home. Our younger son suffers (as do each of us in the family, to some degree) from significant anxiety and depression.

As the parents, we know better than anybody what our children needed but did not have the financial means to contract the necessary services privately. This is why we turned to public programs to help us prevent our situation from becoming worse.

We went far out of our comfort zone to speak about our family’s struggle publicly, in the hopes that we would achieve a few key things.

1. We want to dispel the myth that people who struggle with mental health issues are monsters. Unfortunately, in the time Ms. Tomlinson had to cover this complex issue, she could only focus on the ‘worst day’ issues that characterize Trevor’s and our family’s situation. As parents our motivation is to prevent the ‘worst day’ from becoming a permanent reality for our children.

2. We want to dispel the myth that mental illness is caused by the parents. Too many generations have felt the need to hide, deny and berate the existence of mental illness in their families. This attitude is so unhealthy and inhumane! No good purpose is served by laying blame or avoiding the issues of caring for mental health clients. We must move forward in structuring a system that focuses on preventative and supportive services so that no matter where the individual resides, they may have dignity, opportunities to improve their condition and safety (for themselves and those around them) when they need help to manage their symptoms. Mental health clients, just like all of us, want to be well and do their best!

3. We want to dispel the myth that MCFD is infallible. There is little to no transparency or accountability when they do make errors in judgment. It should be compulsory for all practicing social workers to register with the B.C. College of Social Workers, which is the legislated body responsible for governing their actions in our communities. They hold the power to exercise a necessary evil (removal of children) in the interests of protecting children, but too often they misuse this authority and nobody has the power to hold them accountable because they claim they have done everything in good faith. It is far better for their mandate, regulations and resources enable them to provide services that prevent harm while supporting families at risk, using removal only as a last resort. Who has the power to make these changes?

4. There is a complex network of ministries an individual must learn to navigate in order to obtain services: Child and Youth Mental Health, Adult Mental Health, Child and Family Development, Housing and Social Development, etc. This is a challenge even for those trained to work in these areas of public service, can you imagine how defeated a person who struggles with psychological and cognitive impairment? Please! The system is designed for bureaucrats, not the Canadian citizens who want to improve the condition of their daily life!

5. It is our greatest hope that resources could be made accessible to those who need them, when they need them; that government would invest in training initiatives to ensure support workers have the skills necessary in this field of work; that the public becomes more aware of the real issues mental health clients face and volunteer or donate time in whatever capacity they may be comfortable with; that our mentally ill are no longer forced to come into conflict with the justice and corrections system (where they are socialized by true criminals) to obtain the treatment they require.

SIGN the ONLINE PETITION to REFORM MCFD

Not having a voice is not the same as not using your voice.

Please take the time to read and sign the petition to Reform B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development.

SIGN the ONLINE PETITION here!

On behalf of B.C.’s vulnerable children and families – THANK YOU!

When your children are removed from your custodial care, what the MCFD social worker is doing is literally taking away your legal parental rights and assuming them for the ministry. You no longer have the right to visit or have contact with your children without MCFD approval. You no longer have the right to make decisions for the care and teaching of your children.

The court will presume that what MCFD social workers say about you is true until you prove that it is wrong. This is because the court also presumes that the MCFD action is first and foremost done with the child’s safety and best interest in mind.

This would be reasonable except for the fact that social workers are human and they make faulty judgements. When their error becomes obvious, they turn to the MCFD to protect them with its long drawn out bureaucratic processes and far-reaching power.

For example, when the reason for removing children proves to be invalid the social worker will misrepresent and even falsify information in their first presentation to the court. They will begin searching for other reasons to justify their actions and bolster their case against the parents. They know that it will take months to have another court hearing at which the parent can prove the social worker’s error.  

Be aware that any given time, a social worker or their supervisor can withdraw from a court proceeding. All they have to do is explain their error to the judge and allow the judge to determine if it is appropriate to discontinue the removal of the children. But they will not do that because it means they must admit they were wrong. They will go to great lengths to justify their actions, costing the public and the parents vast amounts of money in legal fees.

Meanwhile, your children will remain in care, until such time as a judge orders them returned. You will be denied access to them or allowed supervised visitation at the discretion of the social worker. If you are allowed to visit your children, the visit supervisor will be charged with a list of visitation rules intended to control what you say and do with your children. If you break those rules, your visit will be ended and further visitation suspended. The social worker can devise any rule they choose, including that you not talk to your children about their rights nor about the fact that they are unhappy in foster care!

You can most definitely complain, but the MCFD complaints process will not address issues that are before the court. Further, each step of the complaints process allows for up to 30 days for a resolution!

You must first complain to your social worker and allow them the opportunity to, impartially and fairly, resolve your concerns. Why would they do that when your complaint is against them? Thus, you must take it to the next level, to their team leader or supervisor.

The supervisor has an interest in supporting the social worker’s stance in a complaint because they are responsible for the errors their team makes. Why would they admit that they allowed a social worker under their supervision to make a gross error in judgement?

You could consider having the B.C. College of Social Workers assist with resolving the complaint. If the social worker is registered with the BCCSW.

What is the BCCSW? It is the government mandated organization charged with monitoring the activities of social workers in our communities. But it is not compulsory for social workers to register with this governing body.

How is the public assured of fair and impartial resolution of complaints, when the MCFD has an interest in the outcome and the social workers themselves are only voluntarily accountable to the government mandated regulatory organization?

The complaints process leaves client families with no means of ensuring their social workers hold to the appropriate standards of their profession or to the MCFD mandate and service regulations.

We must insist that someone besides the social workers and their supervisors are ensuring parents’ rights are not being violated by those individuals who are prideful and prefer to enter into a power struggle rather than admit they made a mistake.

We must insist that the complaints be regulated by an outside organization without a vested interest in the outcome. We must insist that all active social workers compulsorily register with the BCCSW.

Choose to use your voice to speak out for all those who are being abused by a ministry notorious for its lack of accountability. Please sign the petition for Reforming the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

REFORM B.C. MCFD PETITION

I am working on a petition and letters you may copy and email to your MLA detailing the positive changes client families want to see. Please subscribe to the RSS feed or send me a direct email from the email link on the ‘about the author’ page to be notified when these are available.

Also coming this week, a list of resources at your fingertips that client families have found helpful for managing the challenges they face when supporting a loved on who is learning to manage their mental health concerns.