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Social services removing children from parents with ASD

NAS50499
over 5 years ago

Hi, 

I am an autistic adult who is a parent. Since having my daughter I went through a terrible time with social services who set me up to fail and removed my daughter from me because I have a diagnosis of autism. It took me two years to fight for my daughter back and through this time social services and Cafcass used the so called deficits of my autism to justify the removal and to stop the return of my daughter. Thankfully the judge saw through this and returned my daughter concluding in her judgment that I parent my daughter to a high standard. 

I want to know how many my adults will autism who are parents have been through a similar situation. How many parents with ASD and other disabilities and or impairments are being targeted by social services and having their children removed? If you have experienced this please tell your story because the current system is outrageously discriminative against parents who have a disability and or impairment and I would like to raise awareness of the current failures within the current child protection system which is targeting parents with disabilities and or impairments so that change can happen. 

Parents
  • over 4 years ago
    1. I had my baby daughter in 2018. I had an awful time too and I didn't get her back. I was undiagnosed autism and pregnant when I came back from Australia. It was a relationship breakdown, I was homeless, still grieving and confused about a relative's death and not on speaking terms with any of my family. I had to sign paperwork I didn't understand or where would lead to and was placed in a mother and baby foster placement for initially 12 weeks. I didn't understand what being in that placement would lead to. I was told to use the foster carers for help. After giving birth I went there to recover. It was particularly difficult for me to adjust but after the first few weeks I was having my daughter in the room with me. At the same time I was confused with a history of childhood sexual abuse which wasn't helped by the foster carer sharing details about a mother sexually abusing her 2 year old daughter. I was terrified I would be the same. Then I was referred to a team that I understood were meant to help me bond with my daughter. However later I discovered everyone was assessing me with extreme criticism. I didn't understand anything and was exhausted from caring for my daughter. I didn't get compassion or sympathy. I got a wrong suggestion of a diagnosis that lead to a series of mistakes by child services. I wasn't even given a parenting assessment at the time I was forced to leave the placement. The suggestion was disassociative identity disorder and I was seen at a high risk of violence. However the diagnosis was disregarded by the professionals in the field who then said I had ASD. I was shocked. I had never felt so let down in my life by a system I trusted. Before that was discovered I was forced to have contact in public places which as an autistic person would know would cause extreme anxiety and stress especially after being told you were being assessed to the point you had a 50/50 chance of having her adopted. Sadly I didn't have family or friends that could help me, my ex partner's Mum in Australia stopped her from being adopted but now my daughter is on the other side of the world. All I ever wanted was to be my daughter's Mum and do the best by her. All I wanted was a bit of respite each day so I'd have the energy to care for her. In the foster placement it was chaos. Children and adults in and out all the time, the dogs barking at the door. I never could sleep. My mistake was to ever trust child services. People hell-bent on destroying families through their lack of emotion and empathy towards struggling families. I will never forgive them for what they did to me and my daughter.
Reply
  • over 4 years ago
    1. I had my baby daughter in 2018. I had an awful time too and I didn't get her back. I was undiagnosed autism and pregnant when I came back from Australia. It was a relationship breakdown, I was homeless, still grieving and confused about a relative's death and not on speaking terms with any of my family. I had to sign paperwork I didn't understand or where would lead to and was placed in a mother and baby foster placement for initially 12 weeks. I didn't understand what being in that placement would lead to. I was told to use the foster carers for help. After giving birth I went there to recover. It was particularly difficult for me to adjust but after the first few weeks I was having my daughter in the room with me. At the same time I was confused with a history of childhood sexual abuse which wasn't helped by the foster carer sharing details about a mother sexually abusing her 2 year old daughter. I was terrified I would be the same. Then I was referred to a team that I understood were meant to help me bond with my daughter. However later I discovered everyone was assessing me with extreme criticism. I didn't understand anything and was exhausted from caring for my daughter. I didn't get compassion or sympathy. I got a wrong suggestion of a diagnosis that lead to a series of mistakes by child services. I wasn't even given a parenting assessment at the time I was forced to leave the placement. The suggestion was disassociative identity disorder and I was seen at a high risk of violence. However the diagnosis was disregarded by the professionals in the field who then said I had ASD. I was shocked. I had never felt so let down in my life by a system I trusted. Before that was discovered I was forced to have contact in public places which as an autistic person would know would cause extreme anxiety and stress especially after being told you were being assessed to the point you had a 50/50 chance of having her adopted. Sadly I didn't have family or friends that could help me, my ex partner's Mum in Australia stopped her from being adopted but now my daughter is on the other side of the world. All I ever wanted was to be my daughter's Mum and do the best by her. All I wanted was a bit of respite each day so I'd have the energy to care for her. In the foster placement it was chaos. Children and adults in and out all the time, the dogs barking at the door. I never could sleep. My mistake was to ever trust child services. People hell-bent on destroying families through their lack of emotion and empathy towards struggling families. I will never forgive them for what they did to me and my daughter.
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