Mental health issues and child custody

Jox

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KatrinaWaves

Jox wrote: »

She looked after the baby very well for about 4 months but didn't tell anyone she had a baby or registered the child.

The child has been with foster family for 5 months.

Her own parents aren't in a position to help and are far away.

Sorry but if she had looked after it properly then she wouldn’t be in care with the view to adoption. What caused the sectioning if she was functioning well?

Jox

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elsien

http://www.frg.org.uk/images/Advice_Sheets/10-advocacy-for-families.pdf

Red-Squirrel_2

Jox wrote: »

She told me she threw some clothes out the window and then sometime later her door was bashed down by the authorities and she was forcibly removed from her child while breastfeeding.

The child was very well cared for and fed and loved but this family member does have mental health issues that she is in denial of.

She told you.

I’m afraid I would be very sceptical about that version of events.

KatrinaWaves

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

She told you.

I’m afraid I would be very sceptical about that version of events.

Unfortuntely this is right. If I threw clothes out my window right now do you think someone would bash my door down and drag a child from my breast? Do you know anyone this has happened to? People have done stranger things than that and kept their children...

That’s simply not how these things work. I appreciate you are trying to help your family member and that you realise she is struggling with her MH, and I applaud you for trying to help, but you’re not getting the full picture.

sheramber

https://www.frg.org.uk/2-4-whether-your-child-can-be-removed-from-your-care

TBagpuss

It is likely that you are not getting the full story. A care order is only made where a child has suffered, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm. It is not done lightly.

The 'harm' may be deliberate, e.g. abuse, but can also be unintentional, for instance neglect, or inability to meet the child's needs due to their own health issues. Social services don't have any power to break into people's homes, so if the authorities did force entry, they would have had court orders and it was probably the final resort after every other attempt to work with her had been unsuccessful, *and* they believed the child was at serious risk.

Any final decision made by a court has to be based on the child's needs, not those of the mother, and the court has to think about the timescales involved. Sadly sometimes children may be adopted because the parent is not able to make changes at the speed needed for them to be able to care for their children themselves.

If adoption is considered, the court has to explicitly consider the child's needs throughout their life, not just in the short term, as it is an irreversible step.

Generally, social services will try to find someone within the family who is able to care for the child, although they are reliant on what the parent or parents tell them about what family members there are. IF there are other relatives who might be able to take care of the child, they can contact social services directly to ask to be assessed, although again, timing is important.

It is possible that your relative isn't being told much by their solicitor and if that is true, they can consider moving to different solicitor. However, it is also possible that she isn't engaging with her solicitor, or that she is not getting the advice she wants. If she wants, she could arrange for you, or another friend or relative to go with her to meet with the solicitor.

Savvy_Sue

TBagpuss wrote: »

It is likely that you are not getting the full story. A care order is only made where a child has suffered, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm. It is not done lightly.

More than likely: certain IMO. Simply because if the OP's friend is in denial of their MH issues, then you will only EVER get their perception of the story, which is likely to be some way removed from What Actually Happened.

TBagpuss wrote: »

It is possible that your relative isn't being told much by their solicitor and if that is true, they can consider moving to different solicitor. However, it is also possible that she isn't engaging with her solicitor, or that she is not getting the advice she wants. If she wants, she could arrange for you, or another friend or relative to go with her to meet with the solicitor.

And also quite likely that she is just not 'hearing' what the solicitor is telling her, because it bears no relation to her understanding of the situation. Example: solicitor says "you need to attend these contact sessions and do x, y and z", and your friend is just fixated on "everything will be OK once I get my baby back and that's going to happen if I do a, b and c and no-one hears what I'm saying because they are saying THIS and that's not true."

The story about throwing clothes out of the window is not 'normal' behaviour, and may well have been one of a string of 'odd' incidents. It's possible neighbours were concerned for her, or disturbed by her behaviour over a period of time. Her account of these things may be completely at odds with What Actually Happened.

Comms69

Jox wrote: »

She told me she threw some clothes out the window and then sometime later her door was bashed down by the authorities and she was forcibly removed from her child while breastfeeding. - No. That is not what happened. She's lying; which means she wont get the help legally or medically, that she needs.

The child was very well cared for and fed and loved but this family member does have mental health issues that she is in denial of.

No, the child wasn't.


Sorry but not registering the birth is abuse frankly. I suspect it also meant that health visitors etc were not informed and various health checks and vaccinations weren't carried out.


Sectioning someone under the MHA requires assessment from two medical professionals and a warrant from the magistrates court. That doesn't happen for 'throwing some clothes out of the window'