Social workers etc

[Xenia]

Yet another sad tale...

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8010941/Child-protection-why-did-this-woman-lose-her-children.html

Although of course one doesn't know the facts.

I do often come across people who make themselves look like total nutters by being unmeasured in what they write. Sometimes they have a good point but they need to understand that sometimes you need to curb behaviour or it can come back to haunt you however wrong that is.

Of course it is equally harrowing for a father used to having his children with him every day suddenly not to.

The sooner we move to both parents having 50% of the time with the children unless good reason otherwise the better.

now that is a very weird case and shocking too.

The facts as reported sound incongruous to me.

I am involved in detaining people under the Mental Health Act. The threshold for sectioning is really very high. The law does not permit detention if there is any viable alternative. Concerns about parenting ability is a separate issue for children and families services to deal with.

I'm not entirely sure what the relevance of the mother's BSc is either. Class/income/educational background are not relevant to a Mental Health Act assessment.

One never knows. The father is a lawyer so he presumably had cunning plans to "get" the children. We'll see.

I agree it is very hard to section someone. My late father used to etc as a pyschiatrist. However having these cases in the open is great. It's what we need. Much more open ness so we can see both sides and see that things are done properly.

given that the article is quite biased towards the mother, I am surprised that xenia can jump to any conclusion towards the father as he is barely mentioned.

The decision to section people is made by 3 people assessing the situation jointly.

The first is usually a psychiatrist.

The second is either the patient's GP or a section 12 approved doctor (usually a GP who has had training in the mental health act)

The third is a mental health social worker who has had specific training. in the mental health act.

It is very hard to get sectioned and not something that is done lightly. Social services can not force someone to get sectioned. The decision to assess someone for a section nearly always is instigated by the psychiatrist.

There are not enough facts about this case to make any kind of judgement.

Christopher Booker sounds like an arse.

It seems really very unlikely that someone would be sectioned simply for writing letters of complaint, I would like to think that there must be a lot more to this case.

Well she was released. Hopefully she will get the chidlren back next week. I don't think resident parents should confiscate mobile phones which enable children to contact the other parent or their friends or deny them internet access.

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/