FIIGHTING BACK — A Personal Story of FII and parent carer blame : Introduction
In 2005, a social worker from our local authority social services department concluded, and I quote, that the “parents must be commended for seeking a medical diagnosis for their children.” 14 months later, by following that same advice and pursuing autistic assessments on our children, our children were placed upon the child protection register for over a year by the same social services department for following that advice and “seeking a medical diagnosis.”
At that time, we incorrectly thought that such incidents were isolated and that we had been personally singled out for seeking help. However, various reports and news items over the past decade have confirmed that this was not, and indeed is not, the case.
Recent research studies have shown evidence that there is a culture of widespread institutional parent carer blame from many local authorities when parents of disabled children ask for help or support for their children. This has renewed interest my interest in fighting for the rights of all parents of disabled children and campaigning to end this institutionalised blame culture.
In recent years a number of organisations have campaigned separately on this issue including the PDA Society, Sunshine Support, Action for ME and The Erhlers Danlos Society and Fiightback (which offers support and guidance to parents and families accused of fabricated and imaginary illness or FII).
Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, personal details within some of the case studies that I will be mentioning have been altered to respect anonymity. What will follow in subsequent newsletters will be my personal and professional response to the routine practice by local authorities of accusing the parents and carers of disabled children of falsifying or exaggerating their children’s disabilities and denying their children assessments and access to services, when they ask for help.
I do not want this to be viewed as an attack on the professionalism of social workers, but on the national guidance which seeks to criticise and demonise too many parents of disabled children simply for reaching out for support.
Thankfully, changes in legislation and improved training of health and social care workers have been proposed, but in the meantime hundreds, perhaps thousands, of parents of disabled children are still being affected by institutionalised parent carer blame and false accusations of fabricated and induced illnesses.
This introduction and later articles are respectfully dedicated to all of the parents of disabled children who have suffered, or continue to suffer, from a system which is culturally biased against them.
