Child Protection in Australia - Case Study Example

Child Protection Assessment Report Background on the Sampson Family Case Chloe Sampson is an indigenous single mother of four children. She appears not to have the financial means to provide for her children owing to her lack of a steady job. Chloe’s situation is made worse by the fact that she usually uses alcohol to manage stress and has in the past been exposed to domestic violence. In addition, none of the three different fathers of her four children have offered to give her money for the upkeep of their progeny. Chloe has also not been able to deal with the fact that her eldest child was molested sexually by the brother of her former boyfriend. It appears that she did not confront this issue because she did not know how to. Effects There have been serious effects of the problems that have encumbered the Sampson household. Chloe, herself, appears to be completely in denial of her circumstances. She is emotionally unavailable to her children and often leaves them to fend for themselves when they are in her care. She is also desperate for her children to identify her as their sole parent; as is evident in her refusal to allow her molested daughter, Tess, to remain with her more settled older sister. Chloe also refuses to make responsible choices where her reproductive health is concerned. When she broke up with the Darryl, whose brother molested her daughter, for instance, Chloe should have settled for some birth control option if she was going to remain sexually active. This would allow her to remain sexually active while not getting more pregnancies that she did not have the finances to care for. In addition, this would also preserve her health. Chloe is obviously alienated from her life emotionally. She has not even begun to cater for her own emotional needs and so, obviously, cannot cater to the emotional needs of her children. Chloe and Tess obviously experience stigmatisation as well as feelings of powerlessness and traumatisation (Parton 2006). Tess may feel guilty for disclosing the abuse to her mother. She may also imagine that she is somehow to blame for being assaulted by Jacob. The pressure brought by such false beliefs will temporarily stop the progress of her emotional development (Lonne, Parton, Thomson and Harries 2008). In Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development, the sexual abuse of children in the fourth and fifth stages of development arrests the victim’s ability to take on the challenges of prospective growth stages (Lindon 2005). Children such as Chloe’s three elder ones have not developed the capacity to trust because they were exposed to their mother’s neglect since their birth. In addition, the abuse of Tess by Jacob obviously destroyed her ability to develop self confidence as well as a moral conscience. It also negatively affected the other members of the family who had to ignore it because they felt unable to do anything about it. This is obvious in the demeanor of her two brothers when all the children were temporarily taken by child protective services. The boys were emotionally alienated from their circumstances. If the issue of abuse, both in terms of neglect from Chloe, as well as Tess’s sexual abuse, is not addressed with the children, they will take on a guilt that will hinder them from choosing constructive initiatives for the rest of their lives. Tess, as well as her other siblings, need to be taken to a safe place where they can express and get over the depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, impaired self-perception, and anxiety that is the result of abusive parenting. Chloe’s children are also exhibiting attachment disorders that are the result of the trials they have undergone in their short lives. According to the attachment theory, the lengthy absence of emotional affection from a parent can seriously affect a child’s ability to make emotional connections (Samantrai 2003). Tess has in the past exhibited symptoms of reversed attachment where the child becomes the caregiver. At one time, she told her teacher that she often remained at home to look after her siblings. Her brothers also exhibited avoidant behaviour when they remained ambivalent when taken from their mother- something that would cause anxiety for a normally developed child. Even though the sexual abuse of Tess was a serious crime, her mother’s refusal to acknowledge this crime worsened the issue for Tess to a deeper extent. The feelings of abandonment that Tess must have been forced to experience due to her mother’s disinterest may have damaged her psyche excessively. According to the abandonment theory, when a caregiver is self-absorbed or unavailable, her child can search for other places to derive comfort from (Barker and Hodes 2007). This may mean withdrawal into an inner world or into the world of mind altering substances at a later date. Due to her experiences, Tess is a likely candidate for the abuse of such substances in future if only to assuage her pain (Thom, Sales and Pearce 2007). Even though Tess, at present, is a withdrawn child who refuses to counter her mother’s actions in any way, her anger at what happened to her is likely to explode to the surface in future if this issue is not satisfactorily dealt with. Management of the Case To manage this case, different factors have to be considered for the good of the children (Hobert and Frankel 1998). For instance, the children have to be put in an environment where they can be able to trust their caregivers. This is particularly important for Tess who was abused by an adult who then turned her mother against her. It would be better for Tess to be put in such a setting in the absence of her mother. This is because, even though she may not have mentioned it, Tess’s emotional development was deeply damaged when her mother opted to disbelieve her instead of dealing with her abuse. Tess and her siblings should be put in a situation where they have access to adults who provide them with positive experiences so as to counter the neglect and abuse they suffered when under the care of their mother. It is also vital that the children have access to a therapist who can assure the children that they were blameless for their treatment by their mother and absent fathers; thus, making them feel good about themselves (Montgomery, Burr and Woodhead 2003). The children, particularly Tess, should also be put in an environment where they feel protected and cease to fear the possibility of future victimisation. Even though Chloe’s actions towards her children have been reprehensible, she obviously also requires psychological help. Chloe may have chosen to refuse to deal with her young daughter’s sexual abuse because she did not deal with her own abuse. Chloe has the emotional behaviour of a character that has been exposed to many abusive situations in her childhood as well as her past. Even though she has not mentioned it, she may also have been abused in her past. That is something that could cause her to be emotionally available for her children. Chloe also appears to have an apathetic view towards life in general. She has no real goals and is not searching for steady employment. She just seems to drift along with others and take on whatever person she comes across as a boyfriend. She also does not care for her own health. During her fourth pregnancy, she developed a case of high blood pressure as well as diabetes. She might have selected to take birth control tablets in order to avoid having to develop such dangerous symptoms. She also does not know who the father of her fourth child is. What she is inferring is that she slept with multiple men and cannot realistically tell who may have impregnated her without the assistance of a DNA test. This is characteristic of an emotionally wounded individual who does not care anymore for her own life (Prout 2005). This is not only detrimental to her own life, but also her children’s lives if they are allowed to remain with her. Chloe does not have the emotional capacity at present to care for her four children. She needs to come to terms with her own past as well as her emotions before she can be entrusted with the responsibility of younger and more impressionable lives. References Barker, J. & Hodes, D. (2007) The child in mind: a child protection handbook, Routledge, New York. Hobert, C. & Frankel, J. (1998) Good practice in child protection, Nelson Thornes, London. Lindon, J. (2005) Understanding child development: linking theory and practice, Hodder Arnold, London. Lonne, B., Parton, N., Thomson, J. & Harries, M. (2008) Reforming child protection, Routledge, London. Montgomery, H., Burr, R. & Woodhead, M. (2003) Changing childhoods: local and global, Wiley & Sons and Open University, Milton Keynes. Parton, N. (2006) Safeguarding childhood: early intervention and surveillance in a late modern society, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. Prout, A. (2005) The future of childhood, Routledge/Falme, London. Samantrai, K. (2003) Culturally competent public child welfare practice, Cengage Learning, New York. Thom, E., Sales, R. & Pearce, J. (2007) Growing up with risk, Policy Press, London. Read More