Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Two years ago she was written off by social workers as 'too dumb' to marry, let alone become a mother.
But last night Kerry McDougall - who fled the UK to stop social workers taking her first son into care - was celebrating the birth of her second child in Waterford, Ireland.
I read about the forced adoptions in the UK a couple of years ago when I met someone online who was having her children taken from her because she had mental health issues. At first, when I had read her story, I thought, yeah, I bet but after doing the research, I just could not believe it. I know in the US that someone like her would have gotten the support needed to keep the family together if at all possible. Watching her post as she desperately tried to keep the children was terrible. I had seen her original question saying she had been off of medication and doing well for 10 years and then, she was a victim of a crime which set her off balance and she was concerned about seeking help and this was in July. She went and they put her in the hospital and put her kids in "temporary" care but 2 months later, they intended not to give her children back and by December, the kids were taken away permanently. She had twins the next year and they were taken away at the hospital. And, yes, I thought there had to be more but after reading many stories just like that one, I begin to appreciate the less than perfect system we have in the US.
Sadly this is not the first time it has happened and Social Services in the UK is flawed as well as in the US.
Case in point:
I worked for a Drug and Substance abuse facility for the NHS. Shortly after I miscarried one of our patients who was in for mental health and drug treatment fell pregnant. This was her fourth child. When she discovered she was pregnant and after having three of her children removed from her care by Social Services she thought it would be better to terminate the pregnancy. In the UK you need two signatures signed off by Doctors stating why the termination of this pregnancy should be performed. Our doctor signed off on one but the other doctor familiar with her case refused to sign and brought it Social Services.
They told her she was deemed fit to raise this child and to teach her 'responsibility'. Everyone familiar with her case knew that the father was a 'john' who the child would never know and that even though she was receiving treatment she was doing drugs to 'top up'. The child was born addicted to crack and brain damaged.
The patient knew of my plight after my miscarriage and begged me to adopt her child. I was in no position to do so at the time but while the child remain in Intensive Care she was forced to go to her child high and all to take care of the child. Finally one day she up and left never returning to the town I was in. The child died a few weeks later.
It broke all our hearts.
These are one of those moments where Social Services and the hospital Doctor could have prevented such a tragic event from happening.
In the case of the mother with a learning disability they overstepped their reach. This mother is capable of taking care of her child. In the case of a drug addicted mother with mental health issues again overstepping their reach. How can you teach one responsibilty when they do not want to truly clean up their act or can't clean up because they are too busy chasing the high? Or subjecting a child to a parent who is uncapable of taking care such a child?
It is sad all around and Social Services needs reform and retraining on parents who truly are unfit.
They certainly seemed to overstep the bounds in this case. It's a very difficult situation though, the line has to be drawn somewhere, the "where" is what is problematic, as well as how the data is collected to make the determination.
They certainly seemed to overstep the bounds in this case. It's a very difficult situation though, the line has to be drawn somewhere, the "where" is what is problematic, as well as how the data is collected to make the determination.
Yes, as long as someone can provide the financial support for their children and provides them not only a home, food and clothing, pays their medical bills and spends time raising them, it's not anyone else's problem.
Now if these women are simply having children but cannot support them, it's a different matter.
WOW!! I'm glad they moved...they seem to love and cherish their children....the social workers should be fired...their presumptions stole this womans baby from her for months.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
