Friend in need

misgrace

I hope someone can give advice or offer a link in relation to a drug situation.
I'll try and make it as brief as possible.

My friend, (and I really mean a friend) has a daughter of 18, has got involved with a man of 32 who is a junkie.
First thing to get her annoyed was what on earth is a 32 yr old man doing with a 18 year old, but put that aside for the moment.
She has been with him approx 8 months, and she has had in the past a bit of puff, but now she is on herion, and to top it all she is 20 weeks pregnant.

The boyfriend beat her up, and she runs home to mum, and my friend helped her through cold turkey, got her to see a councillor and a social worker, and the daughter was making noises about having a termination.

The daughter after 10 days or so disappears, and mum finds out she is back with the boyfriend, he has sweet talked her round, and now the daughter is back with him.

In the meantime, the mum has spoken to the social worker and councillor explaining her concerns about the baby, the social worker has turned round and said, 'dont worry we will moniter her and keep an eye on her'

The mum is not too happy with this, as the daughter is back on the herion again, and keeping the baby, she is due to have a scan sometime soon to determine if the baby is okay.

The mum wants to know is there a higher authority as such who will listen to her concerns, as she is worried stiff about the damage this will cause to the baby,as she feels and knows that when the baby is born the mother (her daughter) is going to be high on herion all the time with the boyfriend.
She has tried various avenues regarding her daughter, but as she is 18 there is not a lot can be done.

It seems that the social workers attention is more on the daughter than the unborn child, and that the Social worker is very naive with regards to the daughter, as she is a compulsive liar.

Now, I always thought that it was thier duty to protect the child more than the mum, and as she is injecting herion and the Social services are aware of this and the damage it will do to the child, and they seem to be shrugging thier shoulders, 'well, lets wait till the baby is born', 'if we see any sign of neglet we will act' etc.

Surely there is signs of neglet now,are they not condoning neglet, why cant they step in and do something, before the unthinkable happens.

So what I am asking is, is there any person or authority higher that my friend can go to, to get more done about this situation.

Many thanks in advance for your replies.

Hapless_2

The only thing i an think of is if the mum goes to court for custody of the baby once born, but that is a long, complicated and expensive process.

poe.tuesday

there is not a law in the land that can stop the girl taking drugs whilst she is pregnant.

It is her choice to do what she is doing and only she can stop doing what she is doing

If, once the baby is born, it is neglected and only once the social workers deem that the baby is at risk can that child be removed from the mother, there is no way your friend can get the baby just because the mother is a junky, there are loads of junkies with children, just becuase they are junkies does not mean that they can not keep their children

It is not a fair world I know but this girl needs to be given a chance, hopefully she will change once her baby comes along

Charis

Might be worth giving this organisation a ring. They are based in London but could give general guidance.

http://www.drugsline.org/site/pages/index.php

Savvy_Sue

Some places have midwives who specialise in caring for women with drug problems, so it might be worth asking if there is such a clinic where your friend's daughter lives. However, a woman can't be forced to attend.

The other thing is that the social worker may be taking a more realistic attitude than others realise: she probably cannot discuss the case with the mother, and the unborn child may already be on the 'at risk' register. The daughter may think she's going to keep the baby, but there may already be plans for it to go into foster care once discharged from hospital (unless, of course, the mother is receiving appropriate care, turning up for appointments etc).