If I have one regret…

If I have one regret about the quality of my practice as a social worker, it was my inability to find enough time to do everything that was expected of me as a child protection worker. One young client who should have been adopted before she entered her teens, never was. Truthfully, I thought she was in a stable life-long foster placement. I hoped that the foster home would adopt her. Though we discussed this reasonably often, especially after the notion of subsidized adoption became a policy talking point, adolescent acting out (and not even extreme acting out) kicked in and the placement broke down.

I truly hope the Children’s Representative and the Minister of MCFD are able to find permanent adoptive homes for as many kids in care as they can. As my letter in the Times Colonist today says, adding one more complex work demand on the backs of workers already reeling from caseload and workload overload once again suggests to me that the children of BC are being given short shrift by the MCFD and the politicians charged with ensuring its broad mandate is carried out.

Child Protection, in all of its incarnations, needs to be fully resourced. It is not now.