A Cry From the Heart

Annette Hackett

My story does not end there. I still foster, although I have been frozen out by the department because I dared to make a stand. I am working for better treatment for all children in care, and for all carers. Working for CAFS is hard work – many child protection workers do not stay for long, given the emotional distress engendered in their work. They are insufficiently trained, insufficiently supported, and it’s no wonder that the children they work for suffer.

I have been a foster carer now for coming up for 4 years. 2 and a half years ago, a gorgeous 6 week old baby came into our care. For various reasons, her mother couldn’t look after her, and no-one else in the family was able to look after her at the time. Over the next 2 years, we cared for her like our own.

Initially, she had the occasional visit with her mother, but then these stopped. After a while she also had visits with her grandmother, who had indicated a willingness to bring her up. However, Grandma pulled out when she was about 5 months old. This story was repeated twice more, with little BA starting on visits to her granny, then granny pulling out and visits being stopped. Rather confusing for a little one, hey!

In case people are unaware, when a child who is in care goes on a visit, a support worker comes to pick them up – someone the child doesn’t know. They have to get into a government car, go off with this stranger (in this case on a 1 1/2 hour drive), spend 2 more hours with another stranger (family – for little ones with haphazard visits, this is usually a stranger too), then come back again in that government car, often with a different driver. So much for teaching stranger danger!!

So for the 2 years, BA had inconsistent visits with grandma, while her mother went on and had another baby. For some reason, it was decided that the second girl was safe to stay with her mum, although there was no option of BA going back to live with her. BA became a part of our family, my boys’ little sister, them, her big brothers.

Then came the court case. Once again, for those who don’t know the system, a child’s case is reviewed every 12 months. At that time, if the child would still be in danger if they went to live with their family of origin, Child and Family Services (CAFS) could apply either for another 12 month Care and Protection Order, or, if there was no chance of reunification, then they could apply for an 18 year order, whereby the child would be a “Ward of the State” (to use the old fashioned terminology) until the age of 18. At this stage, Grandma once again put her hand up and said she would like to care for BA.

Visits started once again, and this time Grandma was happy for me to be involved. So I took BA to visit grandma – twice. Then grandma failed to turn up to a visit – I found out 3 weeks later that she’d had a heart attack. No-one told me, and of course visits had again been cancelled. End of the story? No! Grandma once again pulled out, saying that she just couldn’t care for BA with her health and other life issues.

A few weeks later, there was another change of heart. Grandma once again wanted to care for BA, only this time, visits were to start again without me being present. Grandma thought that BA’s attachment to me (not surprising!) would interfere with her developing an attachment to her grandmother. Can you imagine your 2 year old going off to visit a stranger, being taken to and from these visits by another stranger? For a couple of months, BA went twice a week to see Grandma. Her behaviour started to change immediately. She woke up frequently during the night, started clinging to me and crying if she couldn’t see me, if somebody came up the driveway (usually indicated by the dogs barking), she would start to cry and say ‘No Nana, no Nana’. She started biting her nails and her toilet training went out the window. She was clingy at her daycare, and I ended up giving up work so that I could be with her during her time of severe distress.

I brought these signs of her distress to the attention of her case worker, who initially did nothing about it. When nothing happened, I asked to speak with her supervisor. We had a meeting, during which I was treated like something that had just crawled out from under a rock, and at the end, the conclusion was that visits would go ahead just like before, that nothing would change, and that BA was in fact not distressed.

As I was unhappy with this response, I took the matter further. This time there was a meeting with more bigwigs in the department (CAFS), in which they seemed to listen to what I said. A ‘file review’ was done into the case (an internal investigation into the decision making process). 2 weeks later, they came up with their findings. I was the one at fault. I was distressed, and BA was copying my distress. Ah, so that’s why, at 2am, in a different room, she would wake crying ‘no Nana, no Nana’; that’s why she was clingy at daycare when I wasn’t even there. It was all my fault. How silly of me not to have realised!

At this stage, overnight visits had started. Not just an overnight visit – she went from day visits to staying from Tuesday morning to Friday afternoon. Her distress had increased dramatically, but of course, I realised by now I was at fault. She actually had no distress at all. On the 20th of March, she left our family home for good. She screamed, kicked, and struggled – it took 2 adult workers to take her away from me (I wasn’t holding on to her – she was holding on to me) and put her into the car. She had kept on asking to go home (back to my home), and I had to keep on saying that Nanny’s home was her home now. In her 2 year old way, she was registering her distress – but this was totally ignored. Oh, and that’s right, she wasn’t distressed. I keep on forgetting!

Now, 3 months on, when we were told that we could see her again, I have had my letters to CAFS constantly ignored. We were told in writing that we could continue to have a relationship with our former foster child, but this, so far, is being denied to us.

In this story, I have not included the many episodes of being misled, of being lied to, of being treated like dirt (I’m only a foster carer – the lowest of the low), of having mistruths told about me (Tasmania is a small place, word eventually gets back!!). It doesn’t include the heartache with which I put a beautiful little girl to bed each night, with promises that I wouldn’t leave her, that I would care for her – knowing that in reality there was nothing I could do. She’s an intelligent girl. She knew something was up. I could only tell her the truth in a way that would make sense to her, without lying, without abusing her in the way that CAFS were continuing to do.

This is but one story of how children are being abused in State Care. There are still carers who abuse children in their care, but are allowed to continue to care. There are children who are separated from siblings on nothing more than an apparent whim of a worker. There are children who are put into ‘kinship’ care (cared for by a relative) as that is less work (and less expensive) for the department, despite the fact that the abuse continues in that setting. Carers fight an ongoing battle to get appropriate care for the children who live with them – a fight for money, for services, for contact with family. And at 18, the department dumps the children – off they go, no family, no follow up.

There are many more foster care stories to tell. This is the way the department treats them, the children and their carers – they who have an obligation to provide ‘exemplary care’ to those entrusted to them.

My story does not end there. I still foster, although I have been frozen out by the department because I dared to make a stand. I am working for better treatment for all children in care, and for all carers. Working for CAFS is hard work – many child protection workers do not stay for long, given the emotional distress engendered in their work. They are insufficiently trained, insufficiently supported, and it’s no wonder that the children they work for suffer.

Where to from here? Tasmania is small, and CAFS suffers the problem of all small departments – an internal culture which is more about the workers than the clients. There are changes afoot, but only time will tell if these are successful in improving the outcomes for those at the heart of all this – the abused, neglected and mistreated children of Tasmania.