Oranga Tamariki has taken the unusual step of letting a journalist work alongside a social worker for the duration of an uplift case. It's well covered, not overly sentimental and succeeds in providing an impartial insight into a case of severe physical abuse. It's told through the eyes of a fairly young social worker, Alex McKintosh.
What made me wince (beyond the injury descriptions) was this line:
“It’s not just the public that hate Oranga Tamariki,” she says when she ends the call, “all the other agencies do as well”.
This to explain why she has to push to have a reluctant paediatrician re-examine the child in question.
That makes her work doubly difficult.
I have always viewed OT/CYF/CYPS as being unavoidably stuck between a rock and a hard place, damned for not 'being there' and damned by many for being there.
But they only exist due to parental or other caregiver failure, or criminality.
Without a doubt it is an organisation like any other. Some members will be better at their jobs; better intentioned, better motivated and more effective.
This particular employee expresses a belief in parental redemption but persisted to first and foremost secure the child's safety.
If she is a fair representation of other OT social workers I am reassured.
(Reflecting on this case being a Pacific family, I am unaware of calls from that sector about racism and the need for Pasifika to take charge of Pasifika child protection. I stand to be corrected.)
2 comments:
Surely if Whanau, Hapu and Iwi were any sort of solution there would be nuthin for OT to be concerned with.
The Becroft report was critisised on RNZ for failing to put forward the victims voices, ie: the reasons for the uplift.
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