Frustration, Policy, Best Interest

Today I’m mad, I’m frustrated, and I’m partially to blame. Somewhat!

Policies for the Foster Care system are outdated, they were written in a time that they may have had to be written the way they are for a reason. When we know better, we should be doing better. But instead of moving along with time and rewriting things so they actually do benefit the children in care, we rest on policies that do not keep their best interest at heart.

Today my child in care had a procedure cancelled that would have been life changing immediately for them if they could have had it done. We needed a parents signature that we couldn’t get. The parent has been absent for quite some time and I should have known this would happen. I know better. But because of a previous child, I believed we would be ok, so I didn’t push to get this signature. I’m not soley to blame. The agency knew policy says we needed to have a bio parents signature, we all just dropped the ball on this.

In my opinion policy needs to change on this matter, if a child is removed it should be automatic that the agency should be able to sign for such things if a parent is MIA, it shouldn’t have to be court ordered. For the love of God, you removed them for abuse or neglect, who’s to say they aren’t going to be neglectful in being around to sign documents.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m very upset today, there are parents that are still trying  to do the right things, I’m not mad at the parents, even the ones who aren’t around to get these things done for their children, I’m mad at the outdated policies and procedures and hoops we have to jump through just to take care for some of the kiddos that come into our homes. In some cases we could take care of so much for them in very short amounts of time if it weren’t for these outdated policies. Instead something like starting Early On that could start immediately sometimes takes months to get going because of something as simple as consent.

The State puts these children into our homes, they ask us to care for them as our own, they ask us to help get them what they need so they don’t fall further behind and so we can start to heal trauma, but then we have to wait, and wait and wait. I’m not saying I should be able to consent to major life changing operations or procedures, but the Agencies the children are placed with should be able to when a parent is not around to do so. Waiting, sometimes makes issues worse for these children, when it could have been avoided. This could be the case for my little one. Today’s decision could effect what happens next for them.

So I guess what I’m saying is, even if you think it might be ok, because it was in past practice, just do the work, even if you know for sure, just bug everyone til you get the signatures/consent that you need. If they tell you that you don’t need them, push to have them anyway. It won’t hurt. And you won’t be stuck one day before a procedure being told it can’t happen now.

Gonna chalk today up to a lesson re learned. Keep Moving forward.