The analogy of the Cook Strait ferry compromising passengers (“State of inertia”, June 3) is an apt one when applied to the safety and wellbeing of children. They are often left adrift with no safe shore in sight with the threat of a Wahine-like storm bearing down on them.
I particularly noted Dame Karen Poutasi’s comments about the failure of Oranga Tamariki to implement recommendations for child protection. Many child psychotherapists, myself included, have given up working with children. Lobbying the agencies meant to protect them is soul-destroying and results in little, if any, change. It is particularly distressing, but unsurprising, to hear stories from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry when many of us were raising red flags at the time this was happening.
Many advocates for at-risk children have been lobbying in multiple ways for years. But unlike the powerful and lucrative lobbying described in the article, lobbying for improved mental-health care or services for the wellbeing of children is usually done at a cost to the lobbyists, who often take time away from their paid work for this purpose.
Joy Hayward(Dunedin)
I probably agree with a good portion of Danyl McLauchlan’s article, but all is not doom and gloom.
