VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Oranga Tamariki (The Ministry for Children) does not have a safe facility in the Waikato for absconding children with complex needs... with particular reference to children and young people on the Foetal Alcohol Spectrum (FASD).

 

These children’s brains are impacted because their mother drank alcohol while they were in the womb. Consequently, they have problems with impulsivity and put themselves (and others) at risk.

Recently I was directly involved in a family group conference for a young person, who for their own safety, was put into the care of Oranga Tamariki. It was/is not safe. This young person has absconded from four or five different placements (no swipe card or keypad at thedoor) and enters dangerous situations.

In the absence of a secured facility, Oranga Tamariki’s alternative is to pay for a personal care-worker to stay with children or young people at risk - up to 24 hours per day. Although the care-worker can counsel the child or young person not to abscond, they cannot restrain him/her. This leaves them free to run away in plain sight.

 

They are then reported missing to the police, picked up and either taken to the E.D. for assessment and sometime to Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital (because there is no other secure facility) or they are returned to the placement.... and then they abscond again.Eventually the placement won’t/can’t take them back.

There are hundreds of young people living in motel rooms with rostered care-workers 24/7 because there is nowhere to put them. Many are not attending school (for lots of complex reasons), so they watch a lot of TV during the day and often given sleeping medication at night to stop them absconding.

The collective cost (per child/young person) is many thousands of dollars per month
(accommodation, Social Workers, Care-Workers, Mental Health services, Hospital E.D., the Police etc.).
There is urgent need for a safely secured facility that can provide effective care for young people with complex needs who are in Oranga Tamariki care.

Living accommodation needs to be provided to help ‘grow’ him/her instead of ‘warehousing’them. Interventions provided could include -
Correspondence School, life skills training, counselling and family therapy, hobbies, sporting activities, Kapa Haka, singing, dancing, sporting activities etc.

Without effective intervention our vulnerable young people will continue to be statistics in our mental health and criminal justice systems. Many will suicide.

Please sign this petition.