The HSE 'Social Workers'

Wittner

Just a note to vent my anger after my wife and I started to trace her birth mother for 2 years. 6 weeks ago, the agency set up a meeting with a 'social worker' to discuss my wife's case. You can imagine the mixture of excitement, terror and stress that my wife has been under for the last 6 weeks.

Of course, true to the nature of the typical civil servant, my wife got a voice mail, a voice mail this morning saying that the 'social worker' could now not meet her in Dublin as arranged 6 weeks ago due to 'cuts' but she could send the information she had by post. How rude, how inconsiderate, how inhumane, how disrespectful of anyone who calls themselves a human being, never mind a 'social worker' whatever that means. How downright uncivil of someone to do that 1 working day before the event. A 'social worker'? I mean, the whole point of appointing a social worker is to deal with what is such a huge event in anyone's life.

But how could someone who calls themselves that, let someone down so badly. I have to say, if it was me, I would have spent my own money just to be civil enough to keep the appointment I made, probably because I consider myself an adult and a human being.

What kind of person does it take to deny both of those pivotal parts of their life and leave a voice mail? I fail to understand, just simply fail to understand how ignorant people can be. Please can we stop paying these people good money to do a job for which they are clearly, substantially unqualified? Just give the information we need and stop complicating the issue.

rinsjwind

First of all, I think everyone on here shares your anger and frustration with the current system but your anger should be directed towards the politicians (of all parties) who have steadfastly refused to legislate for this issue for a very long time.

The poor b"£$%^&d's trying to work in the system have no statutory basis for their work and indeed are severely hampered by the extremely restrictive current legislation which is basically the sams as it was in 1952!The lack of a statutory basis also means that tracing/reunion services were the first to get hit when the cuts were being made and there have been savage reductions in staff and resources being made available over the last 3-4 yrs (thank's to those jerks in Anglo irish et al).

it is getting on for 20 yrs since the Adoption Board itself asked in its annual report for Adoption Information and Tracing legislation to be enacted and everyone involved and I mean everyone; groups representing adopted people, birth relatives, adoptive parents, service providers (both public and private) have been calling for such legislation for even longer.

Seriously thouogh, the only way this will improve is if the minister responsibile (Frances Fitzgerald, Min for Children and Youth Affairs) keeps her recent promises to introduce new leg in the new year.

Finally, has your wife tried contacting the Adoption Authority about this, even given all the above, there must be a better way of handling these matters and if no one brings this kind of thing to their attention they can't do anything, and you never know they might be able to suggest an alternative service?
Best of luck.
Rins

biddybops

rinsjwind wrote: »

First of all, I think everyone on here shares your anger and frustration with the current system but your anger should be directed towards the politicians (of all parties) who have steadfastly refused to legislate for this issue for a very long time.

The poor b"£$%^&d's trying to work in the system have no statutory basis for their work and indeed are severely hampered by the extremely restrictive current legislation which is basically the sams as it was in 1952!The lack of a statutory basis also means that tracing/reunion services were the first to get hit when the cuts were being made and there have been savage reductions in staff and resources being made available over the last 3-4 yrs (thank's to those jerks in Anglo irish et al).

it is getting on for 20 yrs since the Adoption Board itself asked in its annual report for Adoption Information and Tracing legislation to be enacted and everyone involved and I mean everyone; groups representing adopted people, birth relatives, adoptive parents, service providers (both public and private) have been calling for such legislation for even longer.

Seriously thouogh, the only way this will improve is if the minister responsibile (Frances Fitzgerald, Min for Children and Youth Affairs) keeps her recent promises to introduce new leg in the new year.

Finally, has your wife tried contacting the Adoption Authority about this, even given all the above, there must be a better way of handling these matters and if no one brings this kind of thing to their attention they can't do anything, and you never know they might be able to suggest an alternative service?
Best of luck.
Rins

How much do you have to pay state workers to behave like normal human beings?
I am sick to the teeth of social workers etc blaming lack of resources as an excuse for behaving like total shytes.
OP there is, probably, something in the files that they dont want to answer for!

bbam

We in our time have dealt with a number of Social workers and have many friends who have shared their experiences with.

IMHO it's like dealing with any group of people. I've met some who are down to earth, efficient and caring. While others haven't a clue and seem to from another planet being down right rude.
I feel OP should make a complaint to a more senior person, leaving a voicemail on such a sensitive personal matter is poor practice.

Personally we found dealing with the Adoption Board much more problematic, lack of training, lack of interest, no consistency from one person to the next. Some may as well have been taxing cars rather than dealing with the most sensitive, personal aspects of people's lives. There were some real stars there, just not enough of them.

The_Conductor

Wittner- I am truly sorry for the stress your wife has been under- having been in a not dissimilar position myself, I can well relate.

Just to clear up a few points.

Don't read anything whatsoever into his or her inability to meet up with you- it was exceptionally poor manners to cancel the meeting in the manner they did, so close to the meeting. Given cuts- its entirely possible that he or she may not be able to get somewhere to meet, or unable to get a colleague in Dublin to meet with you. Unfortunately the different HSE regions behave like autonomous feifdoms- they constantly pull stunts like this.

With respect of the information she is proposing to post to you- in all probability its a page or two of non-identifying information that has been anonymised to remove any identifying information from it. Even then, there is no indication whatsoever that its accurate- its simply a representation of what someone decided to record in a file, decades ago.

The HSE social worker- is not a civil servant, only a small cadre of public sector employees- including prison officers, are civil servants. They are subject to various codes of conduct- however not the strict codes that govern civil servants (though hopefully this will change).

I'd seriously advise- irrespective of whether there is a letter on its way to you in the post, or not, to initiate a search of your accord. I host the old Adoption Ireland Trace Guides here- please download the appropriate guide, and read through it- it will detail how to find your wife's original birth certificate, which will have her original name, and her birthmother's details on it- and at that stage- feel free to come back here and we will give you suggestions for how you can now proceed.

If any of us can offer any help or suggestions- please don't hesitate to ask- I know how traumatic and emotional it is to search.

Best wishes to both of you,

Shane

Wittner

Thank you all for your kind words.

Shane, I guess I lumped everyone into the same 'Government worker' boat. Certainly this person acted in the way I expect from civil servants. My bad.

rinsjwind, I have enough anger in reserve on any given day for the Government, believe me :-) and I have vented to the so called minsiter for children via email before. In terms of this 'social worker', I guess people's hands are tied to a degree, but notwithstanding this, if I made an arrangement to meet somebody, I would not let something like this stop me from meeting that person. Regardless of my employment status (civil servant or otherwise), I would consider that having made a personal arrangement, especially given the nature of the situation, I would have sucked it up and just met the person - using my own money/time if needs be. That's just a personal opinion I suppose. Please don't take this as a criticism of your point - it was well made :-)

Shane. I already started the tracing process two years ago and managed to get my wife's birth cert and her birth mother's birth cert using your excellent guide (thank you). Having gotten this information, my wife wanted to follow a more official route and also wanted to be sure that the information I got was accurate. I've long been a 'lurker' on this forum under a different user name and a regular visitor to the adoption rights alliance site, so I guess we've both been aware of the difficulties faced by people in this matter for quite some time. This is the first time though that I've posted here. I suppose I mostly feel it's my wife's issue and not for me to be getting hot under the collar about, but sometimes my cup boileth over!

I think this information should be an automatic right for people and I am sick to the back teeth of politicians having more interest in snuffling at the expenses trough then looking after the interests of the people they are supposed to be serving.

In the end though, this has to be my issue as well. Our children have just as much right to know their history. I know my wife supports me in that. If I had the 5 grand or so spare I would have no hesitation in having this person privately traced (using discretion of course and not barging in on the person's life).

It would be nice if Frances Fitzgerald took a little more interest in this issue but judging by her personal homepage on her vanity url (http://www.francesfitzgerald.ie/) I guess this week, takeaway restaurants and keeping her N4 verges trimmed make for more media friendly issues.

Thanks again for your comments. Sorry to be such a whinger but sometimes, just sometimes....

:-)

The_Conductor

You're not a whinger by any means.
Access to records about where we came from- should be a basic human right for everyone- and its bizarre in this day and age that Ireland is still relying on laws largely drawn up by the Catholic church in the 1940s and enacted in 1952.

I would be very hesitant to put any veracity in information in official files- until such time as you have confirmed the information elsewhere. Its not that the social worker is necessarily hiding anything- the information in his or her file could be some fairy tale concocted by either the person recording the information in the first instance- or indeed your wife's birthmum could have given them false information- which is far from unusual.

To be honest- there is only so far that you can go yourself- it is your wife's search- you've gotten her, her birthcert and some other information- it is up to her to decide how she is going to proceed from here- and at what pace. Not all adopted people choose to trace- we are all human and we are all motivated in different ways.

If any of us here can offer any tips or guidance at all- please don't hesitate to ask.

Best wishes,

Shane

biddybops

Wittner wrote: »

Thank you all for your kind words.

Shane, I guess I lumped everyone into the same 'Government worker' boat. Certainly this person acted in the way I expect from civil servants. My bad.

rinsjwind, I have enough anger in reserve on any given day for the Government, believe me :-) and I have vented to the so called minsiter for children via email before. In terms of this 'social worker', I guess people's hands are tied to a degree, but notwithstanding this, if I made an arrangement to meet somebody, I would not let something like this stop me from meeting that person. Regardless of my employment status (civil servant or otherwise), I would consider that having made a personal arrangement, especially given the nature of the situation, I would have sucked it up and just met the person - using my own money/time if needs be. That's just a personal opinion I suppose. Please don't take this as a criticism of your point - it was well made :-)

Shane. I already started the tracing process two years ago and managed to get my wife's birth cert and her birth mother's birth cert using your excellent guide (thank you). Having gotten this information, my wife wanted to follow a more official route and also wanted to be sure that the information I got was accurate. I've long been a 'lurker' on this forum under a different user name and a regular visitor to the adoption rights alliance site, so I guess we've both been aware of the difficulties faced by people in this matter for quite some time. This is the first time though that I've posted here. I suppose I mostly feel it's my wife's issue and not for me to be getting hot under the collar about, but sometimes my cup boileth over!

I think this information should be an automatic right for people and I am sick to the back teeth of politicians having more interest in snuffling at the expenses trough then looking after the interests of the people they are supposed to be serving.

In the end though, this has to be my issue as well. Our children have just as much right to know their history. I know my wife supports me in that. If I had the 5 grand or so spare I would have no hesitation in having this person privately traced (using discretion of course and not barging in on the person's life).

It would be nice if Frances Fitzgerald took a little more interest in this issue but judging by her personal homepage on her vanity url (http://www.francesfitzgerald.ie/) I guess this week, takeaway restaurants and keeping her N4 verges trimmed make for more media friendly issues.

Thanks again for your comments. Sorry to be such a whinger but sometimes, just sometimes....

:-)

Pm sent

Wittner

Thanks Shane. I have only done what my wife asked me, although I'm aware I sound a bit pushy. Really, I have only done what I've been asked to do and she is driving the whole thing. Thanks for the info. I feel better having ranted so I'll stay quiet for a bit now! I'll let you know if there are any developments anyhow,

cheers,

Wittner

Wittner

Sorry biddybops, didn't get at PM,

cheers,

Wittner

bisset

While I don't know anything about your wife's particular case , I think it may be possible that the social worker was ordered by management not to attend the meeting due to the recent directives about mileage. I suggest your wife write a formal letter to the Principal Social Worker requesting an explanation as to why the meeting was cancelled.