Failure to respond quickly enough to cry for help

THE state’s child protection services are failing to respond quickly enough to cries for help from parents, research has revealed.

One woman used the metaphor of needing “a knife in your child’s back” to get attention.

Co-author of the report on service users’ perceptions of the Irish Child Protection System Dr Helen Buckley said a considerable degree of frustration was expressed by people who sought the intervention of the Health Service Executive (HSE) child protection services.

While a number got a fast response, others were critical about delays in intervention.

Those most disappointed with the response they got were parents whose teenage children were becoming very difficult to manage and who wanted early intervention to prevent a situation from getting worse.

Victims of domestic violence also found it difficult to have their concerns taken seriously and found the system difficult to access.

Dr Buckley said quite a number of victims from various backgrounds felt that their concerns were not taken seriously.

A number of people felt they had been harshly and unfairly judged. Some felt that social workers did not consider all the complexities and stresses in their lives; applied unrealistic parenting standards and failed to understand the dynamics of living with a violent partner.

Dr Buckley said the HSE was also slow to react to situations involving a custody issue or a separation because they felt the reports were being made maliciously.

And while examples of positive experiences were encountered, stories of delays, perceived threats and feelings of abandonment tended to dominate service users’ early experiences of engagement with the child protection system.

Dr Buckley said they interviewed young people between the ages of 13 and 23 and their primary concern was wanting to be safe.

They also wanted a social worker who was warm and human but found this was not always the case. This view was also expressed by adult users.