ALECOMM

Mason Jet Lee: Child protection staff stood down over 'errors of judgement' after report into toddler's death

Details

Category: Child Protection Queensland media and newspaper articles

Created: Wednesday, 23 November 2016 22:08

Written by Nick Wiggins - ABC.net.au

Twelve protection staff facing disciplinary action for "errors of judgement" leading up to the death of Caboolture toddler Mason Jet Lee should not be made scapegoats for what is a flawed system, a union has said.

Three child safety service centre staff have also been stood down after the 21-month-old's death from peritonitis in June.

Mason suffered traumatic injuries in the day before his death.

Foster carer blames Department of Children and Families for teenagers’ predicament

Details

Category: Child Protection Northern Territory media and newspaper articles

Created: Sunday, 20 November 2016 21:20

Written by Jill Poulsen - NT News

TWO children who were removed from the care of their foster mother over a “minor incident” are now living on the streets, using drugs and committing property crimes.

The foster carer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the NT News that in the space of two years the two teenage girls she had cared for for 13 years had gone “completely off the rails”.

“(The older girl) has been in 15 different placements, has been in Don Dale, she abuses drugs and alcohol and has a 25-year-old boyfriend ... nobody even knows where she is,” the woman said.

UK Children, Families and Social Services cases

Details

Category: Child Protection UK media and newspaper articles

Created: Monday, 07 November 2016 00:10

Written by Articles compiled by "Creature S"

Paediatrician David Southall was struck off the medical register after twice accusing parents of murdering their children. He was called before the GMC again over a further series of allegations, which were found to be proved last month. Five mothers whom he wrongly accused of deliberately hurting, and in one case killing, their children, gave evidence to the hearing. Their accounts gave a chilling insight into the consequences of so-called "sleep study" tests that he conducted on 4,500 of his young patients during the eighties and nineties.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=499740&in_page_id=1770

The Baptism

Details

Category: Child Protection USA media and newspaper articles

Created: Sunday, 23 October 2016 01:56

Written by Geri Pfeiffer

There are days where I do not believe I can even take one more breath. Moments where I cannot bear one more thought of what has happened to Jake and I. The loss, a palatable, bitter bile in the back of my throat that burns, and does not go away when I swallow.

I dared not open the album of his baptism. Until this morning.

As a Christian and a joyous Catholic these photos were made at the time of THE most precious event in the life of the Catholic family....a child's baptism.

I was filled with joy to perpetuate my faith in Christ in my grandson.

The waters of my Baptism had reached across all the years of my life and brought me home to the Mother Church. I would now share that with Jake thru the Holy Sacrament of Baptism.

It was the single most important thing I could do for him, knowing my health issues and that even if I were not there....my church would be.

These photos are a document to this most joyous time in my life. Taken on a morning when this high strung little boy was especially charming for the camera.

The church had given me presents at Christmas because I was poor. When asked what I would like as a gift....I asked for a white suit for my grandson baptism, and a pair of dress shoes. On Christmas when I opened the gifts from the church ladies, there among the yarn, and a coat for me, and other sweet gifts.....was this stunning tux for Jake.

He would be the most handsome child ever baptized.....in white....just like all the other little children....a vital part of St. Eugene's. Something that I had missed out on as a Catholic....a childhood in the church. His inclusion in The Faith was so important to me. Maybe too important....because it was all taken away. There would be no future for either Jake or myself in the Catholic Church of St. Eugene.

I continued to go to mass for 2 1/2 years after Jake was #TAKEN. I did not hear a word of the weekly homily, and my role as a communion minister was filled on auto-pilot. I faithfully paid my tithes and the building fund, even S the house I lived in fell down around me. Surely, if I were faithful...God would perform a miracle and I would see Jake again.

Time moves on and no prayers were answered. Going to the church where I had known such joy became a millstone around my neck. I could barely walk in the door, much less smile and pretend that I loved the Lord and the Lord loved me.

I know deep inside my heart that there is a God, but for some reason, I have not found favor with Him.

So in the words of Khalil Gibran, "it is better to pass into the seasonless world where you laugh...but not all of your laughter, and cry...but not all of your tears.

I realized this morning as I opened the Baptismal album that I am indeed, suspended, between life and death, in a nightmare that I cannot awake from, heal from, or move past. As I looked, as if for the first time, at these precious photos, of a child who no longer exists....and is yet living...somewhere.

What shall I do with this unbearable existence. I do not wish this type of pain on anyone...and yet I know that thousands of struggling parents exist with me in this void. That knowledge makes this pain even more unbearable....that the God that I loved can allow this.

The adopter's worship at Lake Texoma on the weekend. Ignoring Jake's catechism and baptism. Jake will never know the joy of our community life at St. Eugene's. He will know nothing of our precious existence in our beloved church.

I ask you, is this the life of a child abused? Unloved? Not cared for? He was cherished by everyone in his family. All destroyed....for the "best interest" of this happy little boy.

I have left the church....for now....a sabbatical of sorts, to travel in the non-existence of marking time, making days go by, searching for an answer....Why?

#TAKEN
#JakeDenzilCumpian
#LouisADuel
#HollyMastersLitton
#NicoleHall
#AmyWhitton
#LeilynHall
#CorruptFamilyCourts
#Kids4Cash
#AmericasTakenChildren

Dandridge DCS case manager charged with filing false reports in child abuse investigation

Details

Category: Child Protection USA media and newspaper articles

Created: Tuesday, 27 September 2016 18:21

Written by WATE 6 On Your Side staff

DANDRIDGE (WATE) – A Tennessee Department of Children’s Services employee is facing charges in both Jefferson and Sevier counties.

Thursday, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Brenna Elizabeth Cervino, 33, with two counts of official oppression, three counts of official misconduct, one count of filing a false report and one count of falsifying a government record.

NSW Child removal rate rise slammed

Details

Category: Child protection media articles

Created: Monday, 03 June 2013 12:52

Written by Natasha Robinson - The Australian

NSW Community Services Minister Pru Goward has blamed a "punitive" and "risk-averse" culture in child-protection departments for the spiralling rate of Aboriginal children in the out-of-home care system that dwarfs the numbers in other parts of the country.

COAG recommends national registration of social workers

Details

Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Tuesday, 15 March 2016 06:53

Written by ABC News - James Hancock

A national registration system for social workers is being urged by the South Australian Government in the wake of damning coronial findings after the tragic death of Adelaide girl Chloe Valentine.  ***(In fact, the social workers themselves are looking at adopting a "self-regulated" model of oversight, which will do nothing to help protect children or ensure that social workers are abiding by the laws.  Afterall, it's no different to the law society of each state regulating lawyers that pay to run the law society.*)

Dozens in CPS have criminal records

Details

Category: Child protection media articles

Created: Sunday, 22 March 2009 20:16

Written by The Sacramento Bee - By Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton - mlundstrom@sacbee.com

Drug possession, domestic violence, repeatedly driving drunk, assault with a deadly weapon – any one of these charges or convictions could lead child protective services workers to remove children from a home or force a parent into counselling. But all of those crimes and many others appear in the backgrounds of employees of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, a Bee investigation has found.

"Death in care criticism "

Details

Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Saturday, 18 November 2006 23:30

Written by Jamie Walker - Courier Mail Queensland

THE State Government will consider new safety measures for psychiatric patients in care after a Coroner hit out at a "fatalistic professional attitude" to the risk of suicide.

Helen Jeffrey, 30, suffocated herself with a plastic bag provided by Nambour General Hospital staff on March 24 last year.

She had been admitted to the psychiatric intensive care unit after attempting suicide and became the second sectioned psychiatric patient in two years in Queensland to end her life using a plastic bag.

Maroochydore Coroner Ken Taylor last week made nine recommendations over Ms Jeffrey's death to Health Minister Stephen Robertson – expressing surprise that hospital staff had not identified plastic bags as a potential suicide aid.

"I have felt somewhat uneasy about what I shall, for the sake of convenience, term a fatalistic professional attitude towards suicide risk," Mr Taylor wrote.

A spokesman for Mr Robertson said the Minister was awaiting a copy of the recommendations which include a call to remove all objects "not uncommonly used as a means of suicide or attempted suicide".

Mr Taylor also recommended that Mr Robertson examine the feasibility of fitting remote pulse-monitoring wrist bands to all psychiatric patients held in state care.

Staff psychiatrist Keith Muir told the inquest that, in 35 years of clinical experience, he had never encountered such a death.

Asked by Mr Taylor if he was alarmed by the presence of plastic bags in psychiatric units, Dr Muir said: "Yes and no."

"The fact is that people who are determined to kill themselves . . . you know, that old expression, 'Where there is a will, there is a way'," Dr Muir said.

Mr Taylor said it was with a "considerable degree of incredulity" that he received the evidence that plastic bags had not been identified as a potential suicide aid before Ms Jeffrey's death.

Although Ms Jeffrey's family was entitled to be disappointed, the Coroner made no criticism of the standard of care.

"I am satisfied there was no wilful neglect," he said.

The Health Minister's office said plastic bags were already being removed "where ever practical" from psychiatric wards in line with precautions triggered by Ms Jeffrey's death.

But the spokesman said it would be difficult to eliminate their presence because plastic bags were necessary to line "communal" bins for potentially infectious or unhygienic waste.  ^{_{(Source :http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/death-in-care-criticism/story-e6freoof-1111112550110)}}

"Grandmother questions foster care death by holding Leduc protest"

Details

Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Thursday, 21 July 2011 23:30

Written by Simon Yackulic

A Warburg area woman isn't giving up on her granddaughter's memory and is leading a charge to look into Alberta's foster care deaths.

The women took to Leduc's main street to protest in front of the Alberta Family and Child Services office Friday, July 15, with around a dozen supporters and hundreds of signs, some of which read "stop killing our children" "work with families not against them" and "Secrets? What are you hiding and covering up?"

"On April 5, a social worker from this office went to my daughter's place to apprehend her roommate's (two) children," the grandmother explained, speaking in front of the Leduc office. "As an afterthought they apprehended my daughter's baby, and refused to let any family member take that baby and just stuck her in a foster home on the south side of Edmonton."

An affidavit signed by a social worker two days later, on April 7, claimed that the child needed to be removed as "the infant has been subjected to disharmony in the home and the child is left with inexperienced babysitters" and her mother "appears to suffer from an alcohol addiction."

On April 8, the grandmother visited the baby at the foster parent's house with her daughter. She said that they were distressed by what they saw.

"She had poop on the side of her bum from not being cleaned up properly previously. She had such a diaper rash it was disgusting," she said.

"I asked (the foster parent) how long she had diarrhea. When we saw her on Friday she had diarrhea for three days. And I asked if she had taken her to a doctor and (the foster parent) said 'no, if she's not better by Monday I'll make an appointment.' Monday she died. She let that baby lay there and suffer for five days without taking her for any sort of medical attention."

"Qld reviews foster child's crash death"

Details

Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:30

Written by Sydney Morning Herald

Queensland's child safety minister says there will be a full review into the case of a foster child who died when she crashed her carer's car.

"Baby boy dies after being hit by government (DoCS / FACS) car in driveway of Ipswich home"

Details

Category: Child Protection Australia media articles

Created: Monday, 12 January 2015 23:30

Written by Brittany Vonow, Ruth McCosker. Rhian Deutrom - The Courier-Mail

UPDATE: A Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services spokesman has this afternoon confirmed that a department car was involved in an incident yesterday afternoon in which a young boy died..

“The department is providing the utmost care and support to both family members and staff,” he said.

“The department will review this incident and this review will also be externally scrutinised. The police are continuing their investigation and will also prepare a report for the coroner’s office.”

The Department of Child Safety said due to ongoing investigations it did not intend on commenting further.

Earlier:15 month-old boy killed yesterday when he was hit by a car reversing down the driveway of his Ipswich home has been remembered as a “happy-go-lucky” child with a “smile that could lighten up a sad face”.

Braxton James Nowlan, who would have turned two in August, was hit and killed on the driveway outside his Ripley home by a government car in the tragic accident.