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Post by flossyinoz on Jun 23, 2009 15:50:52 GMT 10
Just stumbled over this www.connections.org.au/news/?nid=12Great initiative but a "bit of a joke" for those already in the system and not getting to the children who obviously need loving families. Also what happened to the territorial division of agencies in Melbourne. Room for discussion!
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Post by kate on Jun 23, 2009 18:34:24 GMT 10
There are a number of kids with 'special needs' requiring families. Maybe the kids that are in need of families don't meet your wish list, so they need more families with different characteristics on their wish lists?
Good news on the books that they have created for kids in permanent care though.
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Post by flossyinoz on Jun 25, 2009 11:33:43 GMT 10
Kate,
I agree that not all of the kids would match "our wishlist" as you put it, however some of our wishlist was determined by our social workers and not by us.
Connections states on their website that some of the kids are older or are sibling groups.
I know you know the system from the other side and have also experienced the issues of the system.
My point is rather that if you are at the IP application end you have no way of evaluating if one or several of the kids who need parents would be suitable to your "wishlist" as this is pre determined by the agency. If they say no its no.
I am just saying that the system, and here I acknowledge Connections says the system is faulty, should allow applying IPs to actively look into profiles of kids if they think they could be a suitable match. This would speed up the process. The final say would still stay with the agency and a panel, but as an IP you feel totally stripped of the decision over your own future and family life as other people decide over you.
A "wishlist" is an ideal, but there may be certain situations where an IP would want to let go of one or the other criteria eg age, a certain disability etc., but you do not even get the opportunity to decide yourself.
Flossyinoz
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Post by goggly on Jun 25, 2009 18:17:19 GMT 10
Flossy I totally agree. Connections also fails to mention exactly how long it all takes, which would rule a lot of people out who are considering starting a family now or in the near future.
Also that mentions nothing about the at least two year rule between kids, no pg for 15 months and that the one coming in must be the youngest. We would love an slightly older child than our DD, but placement practice doesn't allow it.
I find it bizarre that all the matching is left to the SW. When I get a bit crazy with all this stuff I visit a website run by the US government called "Adopt us kids".
Basically the website has all the profiles of the kids available for adoption throughout the US. There are a lot of kids that would not fit out specific criteria that we would want to parent in a heartbeat and would suit out family make up.
I wonder how quickly we would have more kids if we are able to at least participate in some small way.
I realise that there has to be a level of detachment in the process as you don't want to get your heart set on a child and then not be placed with it, but I also think that far more people would be interested in permanent care if the whole process was not so hypothetical and there could be discussion about real live children that may be placed with you rather than someone else's experience.
I am not knocking the SWs - they have a really difficult job, but I sometimes wonder how it is possible not to inherently like some couples more than others which has to have a role to play in putting people forward for selection.
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mel
Newbie
Posts: 16
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Post by mel on Jul 9, 2009 22:32:47 GMT 10
I find articles like this annoying and they give people the wrong impession. There arent heaps of children waiting to be placed into families and there are also very very few cases where the transition from foster care to permanent care is seamless and problem free.
I think all permanent care advertising should be much more realistic so they get appropriate carers who not only understand the long wait they could have to be matched but also understand the special needs and often life long emotional difficulties these children will face. Yeah there are exceptions and sometimes placements happen quickly and things do go very well but the norm is not so straight forward.
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