System to protect children will fail at times but this can be minimised by all working together

Dear Editor,

I read the article in yesterday’s edition of your newspaper `Single mom claims CCPA staff trumped up pregnancy claim in scheme to take away only child’ and I would just like to make it clear that it is not a case of staunchly defending the officers.  In the provision of human services lapses do occur.   I met with the client and the officers responsible to discuss the matter but the client was only interested in airing the grievance of perceived corruption and mistreatment at the hands of the investigating officers and it was most difficult to get the client to listen to any explanation. This was understandable in the circumstances. Nevertheless, I tried to get over that the officers are mandated to investigate every report of abuse received but I will certainly investigate if there were lapses in the investigation process but this was not acceptable to the client who left dissatisfied with the common theme of “we going to the media.”

I am a little surprised by the reported statement of my NGO colleague, Karen de Souza, who over the years has been referring and reporting cases and knowing that I am always willing to listen to any lapses and working at correcting same.

Child Protection Services in Guyana is still relatively new and there is much more that the Agency and the Ministry have to do to gain public trust and co-operation which is needed for the success of the Agency.  In this regard, the media and our NGO partners can do more to assist in getting it right for our children than just using every opportunity to criticize and to sensationalize.

It is said that, “…in child protection work, parents often feel disempowered and at times they feel they are being `tricked’ as they do not fully understand what is happening. This can result in parents being confrontational, which is detrimental to the assessment process.” To alleviate this officers have to constantly give parents explanations as to the questions of what is being done.

This matter is still being investigated to see where the lapse occurred and what could be done to rectify, and I wish to reiterate that it is most unfortunate and yes! the system to protect will fail at times but if all are on board working in children’s best interest and not being partisan it would minimise children falling through the cracks in the human service system.

Yours faithfully,

Ann Greene

Head of the Childcare & Protection Agency