“What a beautiful job you do!”, “It should not be funny every day!”, “You must see difficult situations!” … So many sentences that mark the projections that people have of our job and Interventions of “social services”, as they are called … We can however regret that we only hear from these same “social services” as when, in the face of a situation of aggravation of danger (assault and injuries, rape, incest, even death), we are questioned about “But what are they doing?”
Let’s see things in the face: what can push to work in the social sector and more particularly in child protection? It is certainly not the attraction of salary! Nor societal valuation, since, beyond the messenger of our missions, it is often a score that is carried out when, for reasons of degradation of the living conditions of minors, the subject is brought to the media sphere.
No, what brings us together is a somewhat naive and utopian desire to help minors whose endangerment is proven (parental conflicts, precariousness, hygiene, care, outbursts, intra -family violence , physical, sexual, psychological, etc.). The panel of endangerment is varied, diverse, we will never fail to surprise the “creativity” of situations that minors are led to live.
a significant lack of means
The base? Being there for the child, wiping family oppositions and resistances in the face of constrained measures, attending sometimes heartbreaking situations, often sad. Our missions? Reduce the danger by all means at our disposal. Our tools? Our professional skills, our knowledge of devices, multidisciplinary and partnership work, and especially our desire and our motivation.
It is in an extremely regrettable way on this last point that the current context of lack of means and saturation of care systems begins to have a significant impact, bringing exhaustion, demobilization, even disillusionment. Behind the scenes ? As an example: when a magistrate is brought, on the recommendation of our services, to diligent a provisional placement order (OPP), the minor is entrusted to the responsibility of social assistance to childhood.
It is terrible to note that, the homes and foster families being saturated, many investments cannot be assured. The minors, under the influenced opposite, return to their home, a place of endangerment, pending a place. And our service, however carrying the request for investment, remains mandated to go to this same home, which in fact is all the more hostile.
You have 54.88% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.