All Black losses pose family risk

A two-year-old child is found by a member of the community wandering the streets alone.

The mother of a seven-month-old baby is beaten and strangled by her 21-year-old partner.

Stories such as these fill the days of the Rodney Child, Youth and Family social workers.

Sharon Ward and Jennifer Milne have been at the Warkworth office for about three years.

As they check reports for the day, I can't help but wonder how these women deal with heartbreaking stories of abuse and neglect daily.

"It's really sad that our worst days are when the All Blacks lose an international game - usually on Sundays we are bombarded. What does that say about our community?" says Jennifer Milne who specialises in mental health.

"At the end of the day we walk away merely having put supports in place. But it's up to individuals after that to keep the wheels in motion and ensure they are providing a safe and loving environment for their children."

Ms Ward, who specialises in dealing with domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse cases, says there is a common misconception about CYF social workers.

People often assume CYF workers are there to remove children from their families, creating a fear of CYF workers getting involved, she says.

"To put things in perspective, only 2.5 percent of cases result in the child being removed from their family," Ms Ward says.

"That's 97.5 percent that don't result in uplifts of children.

"We want to help people realise that removing children from parents only ever occurs as a very last resort."

She says that wherever possible, they try to keep the family intact.

"Sometimes there's no other option, but we always try and seek placements with other family members or friends so they can stay in the network."

"Our aim is to work alongside families to help them overcome the challenges they face. The media tells all the bad stories. We have a lot of successful local stories with families. But they have to make the first step, they have to want to change."

Ms Ward says they also focus on positives.

One girl recently moved to Invercargill with her foster family, and CYF pays for her to return home three times a year to see her family.

"We also want to celebrate life skills. One student just got their licence, and another just got a job. We like to celebrate the successes."

Last week was Vulnerable Infant Week, with a special focus on infants and the number of infant deaths.

"These young children clearly cannot protect themselves from harm and are the most at risk of serious injury or death from neglect or abuse."

The team at the CYF office receive notifications through the national call centre, which fields calls from police, hospitals, schools, non-government agencies as well as concerned family, whanau and members of the public.

A response time is allocated to each case by the call centre, depending on the urgency.

"Critical means we have to respond in 24 hours, very urgent in 48 hours, low urgency is 28 days," says Ms Ward.

Says Ms Milne: "Responding means we physically go and visit the family and children involved and assess the situation."

Domestic abuse is the most common type of incident dealt with - about 10 cases weekly through the area office.

She says they make a call on the children's safety and if family violence is an issue they suggest mum and children go into refuge, or that dad or the partner leaves.

"If we do ever remove the children, they usually go back when the family has sorted itself out and it is safe for them to return."

People may be referred to other professional organisations.

"If people are struggling to find help there are many wonderful community-based agencies all over the place in Rodney that we can make them aware of," Ms Milne says.

The new Family Violence Campaign launched in early September is an attempt to create a culture of zero tolerance with a simple message that 'Family Violence is not OK, but it is OK to ask for help'.

It's a struggle to recruit sufficient caregivers, not just for CYF but other district organisations too.

Caregivers are very special people who open their hearts and homes to children, sometimes for only short periods, Ms Milne says.

"On the one hand, it's sad that there is such a high demand for our services and that communities do need us so badly. But so long as there are families out there needing a helping hand, we will always be there."

- © Fairfax NZ News