Hope for Disabilities

Whether you are out in public, or maybe even in the privacy or what you thought was your own home, you might be able to relate to this topic.  Some people just don't know when to keep their opinions to themselves and mind their own business.  Their heart and intentions may seem in the right place to them at the time, but they may not understand the full scope of what exactly might be going on behind closed doors.  The ways of and rules of reporting suspected abuse and neglect, has changed a lot in the last 10-20 years.  It used to be that if and when you even suspected child abuse or neglect, all you had to do was call 911 or mention it to what used to be known as a state mandated reporter.  This is not necessarily the case anymore.  In some states and countries, you have to actually see the abuse or neglect with your own two eyes and report it yourself for the report to even possibly get acknowledged.  You can't just go to someone who may have at one point in time had authority like a school teacher or principal, or even a doctor or policeman and say that you have heard his from someone and expect them to investigate it.  You actually have to have witnessed it yourself and file the complaint yourself, and even then if it is investigated, but they do not see the concerns that you have reported, their hands are tied and nothing can be done to attempt to resolve the problem.

On the other hand, if a report is made in regards to a child with a disability or a child where one or both of the parents has a disability, The, "authorities" for some reason do not seem to care who made the report and whether it is true or not.  This is can be very sad an unfortunate.  For example, if someone is concerned about a person with, "Special Needs" and their ability or lack their of, of taking care of a baby or a child, all they have to do is make the phone call and say anything whether it is made up or embellished or not and if it is believable enough, they can come in and take the child whether they have the proper evidence or not.  This is sad, but true.  Some people realize that their is not a special department within Child Protective Services, where they have specially trained people on staff to handle reports where either a parent or a child, or maybe even both has a, "disability", and some people are really fighting to get this policy to change.  It is sometimes hard to decide if there is truly abuse or neglect going on when you may not know the complete circumstances of the household, and sometimes people just want to be cruel and vindictive, and that needs to change.

Just because a parent has a, "disability" of some kind, does not necessarily mean that they are in capable of taking care of a child or multiple children.  Sometimes services might need to be implemented, so that the parent can be the best that they can be to benefit the child or children and taking the child or children out of the home, may not solve the problem or problems and may not always be the answer.  Hopefully some day Child Protective Services and other law enforcemnt officials might realize this and try to implement services into the home to keep families together, because the best answer may not always be to take the child away from the parent or the parent away from the child.