Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A Perth foster mother says her child was repeatedly denied access to specialist paediatric assessments by the government department responsible for his welfare, delaying diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder and denying him the help required to succeed at school. Sara Perkins* took the Department of Communities to court seeking a guardianship order so that she could make vital decisions about her son’s health care without needing the constant approval of overworked case managers who didn't know her or James*. Now that she has won that case she wants to speak out against a system she says is neglecting the medical needs of society’s most vulnerable children in favour of benefiting the strained bottom line. And the state’s peak fostering organisation has backed her concerns. Her son’s serious behavioural issues, which got him suspended from kindy and kicked out of the school he was attending, became more apparent as he got older. He was forced to go to school without the help of an education assistant because a diagnosis was needed before that aid was allocated. But the department wouldn't allow the necessary assessment. While many case workers are happy to facilitate specialist and doctors appointments for kids in care, some require foster carers to gain permission from the department before accessing professional help. Ms Perkins says her appeals for counselling support for James over the three years he has been with her were largely ignored.


The Department of Education does not provide additional assistance for children unless they have a medical diagnosis. Ms Perkins first asked for medical assessments in March 2018, when her son’s behaviour deteriorated as he reached his fourth birthday. Over the next few months, a GP and a paediatric psychologist who had been providing therapy for the boy put in writing that he needed a thorough psychological assessment for possible FASD and possible global developmental delay and that time and money should be spent “exploring the issues underlying these behaviours rather than therapy he is not yet ready for”. WAtoday has viewed this documentation. Ms Perkins said at one point a paediatrician told her that without intervention James would end up in jail. "It turns out that if you push too hard for services for your kids, ask too many questions, suggest policies be followed and like a mamma bear pursue the best interests of your kids it’s considered by the system as you not being cooperative," Ms Perkins said. A foster mother has warned the system is not working for kids in care. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola "Despite doctors’ recommendations, school reports, therapists’ concerns, despite every professional backing me and putting everything in writing, I was the one doing the wrong thing."


Foster parents must keep up several 'compentencies' in order to continue as foster carers, one of which is 'working cooperatively with the department'. Ms Perkins says that fed up with her questioning their decisions, the department threatened to remove her now five-year-old boy and his younger sister from her care. They complained she was difficult to work with. Ms Perkins and her partner decided the only way to secure their stability as a family and access the help James required was to get the courts involved and seek guardianship orders. It was a huge risk that left her feeling sick with dread; the department fought her application despite their birth mother telling Ms Perkins she agreed it was in their best interests. Ms Perkins said she would collapse into bed after the children were asleep and cry, racked with the knowledge that if the court's decision was not in her favour, her children – the youngest of whom had known only her as his mother after coming to her at only 10 days old – would be moved to live with strangers. In the end, she won. The children will stay with her until adulthood. Ms Perkins said during one hearing a magistrate warned that the government department had forgotten it was meant to be acting in the best interests of children.


He described the system’s treatment of her son as ‘tragic’ and ultimately instructed the department to have the boy assessed. More than one year after she first requested the testing, James was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, intermittent explosive disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. It had been one year without the medications he required. Without the support he and the family needed, and critically, without the support of an educational aid. James had spent a tumultuous year at school, lacking the early interventions that would have given him his best shot at success. Ms Perkins was warned about the risk of compounding her son’s trauma with each failed school experience. “His behavioural issues are now so bad. Last year in March when we had the first education team meeting where they said he needed help, diagnosis and more, it should have been done then,” Ms Perkins said. “Now he's got this pattern of being triggered and overwhelmed by school that the behaviour has just got worse and worse." Ms Perkins warned that foster parents were scared to speak out about the roadblocks some workers put up when families were seeking professional support for traumatised children.


She said trusted foster carers must be given the freedom to do what was in the best interests of the children they loved. “There needs to be this wraparound support for these kids,” Ms Perkins said. “They're all high needs, because the very act of being removed is highly traumatising in the first place. And that's where it falls over. Because each thing you want to do, each assessment, each specialist, each service, each therapist or counsellor you want to access, DCP have to approve it.” Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk responded to a detailed letter from Ms Perkins which outlined all that James had endured and the problems she was having getting him the assessments and treatments he required by thanking Ms Perkins for “taking the time to share your experience as a foster carer”. “I acknowledge the concerns you have raised and acknowledge your concern regarding any delays that occurred in seeking medical assessments, which can then lead to delays in seeking treatment to address any conditions identified,” the Minister wrote in June 2019. “I want to assure you, that I am continuing to look into the concerns you have raised.” There are claims overworked case workers make decisions to benefit budgets rather than children. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola

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