Haringey Social Services Not All Bad Shock
Hi Peeps. It’s an especially slow day at work today and I’ve used the time to catch up on other people’s blogs. Which often makes me think how little I have to say. I know, I already said that a couple of posts ago! I rest my case!
I think for instance of Seaneen, who has been writing, so beautifully, about how the Baby P case reflects on the state of Haringey Social Services. Well this would be a chance for me to leap in and start opining about, more particularly, their Children and Families Service. I could even be rubbing my hands with schadenfreude as someone who has suffered at their hands in the past.
But I’m not the sort to bear a grudge. I’ve moved on. My son is OK (that’s the bottom line), and things have worked out alright for us (not necessarily any thanks to Haringey). Now when I see the social workers who I was locked into such bitter combat with a few years ago, we smile and greet each other pleasantly.
And far from feeling much satisfaction at the drubbing they are receiving in the media, I just feel sad. It is truly terrible that after the most notorious child abuse case of recent times occurred here, with Victoria Climbie, that this could happen in our borough again. No area wants their name becoming synonymous with child abuse! It was tough enough for all concerned (especially the average conscientious, hard-working frontline social worker) in the aftermath of the Climbie case. Now it appears there MUST be some kind of systems failure in Haringey.
It is hard for Haringey to recruit social workers who want to stay in post. Post-Climbie, they were offering financial incentives to potential recruits. Now what will they do? Probably no-one wants ‘Haringey’ on their social work CV.
The morale of the local social services can only be guessed at or imagined. I am sorry for the truly needy kids in this borough. Sorry for the unsung efforts of all the good people that daily do their best in an often thankless profession. Sorry for this, if not ‘broken’, then certainly hardly ‘whole and intact’ society in which tiny children can be tortured to death.
Excuse me for not making a lot of sense. I felt as a resident of Haringey (and ‘victim’ of Children’s Services here) I had to give my two penn’orth.
Another thing I hereby undertake to do ‘some time’ is talk about our local mental health services in more detail. Having read Seaneen on the ‘St Ann’s experience’ I must have right of reply! To say ‘By God you’re absolutely right, and what’s more…’
Take care dear peeps. Drop by to say hi even if you’ve nowt to say. I appreciate it, and often have precious little myself! Love, Zoe.
Am I Still Ill? 
Making bloggie friends.
Hi peeps. It is always nice when I get…out of the blue…an unexpected comment, and then take a little virtual trip over to their corner of Blogland and have a nose around. It has only dawned on me relatively recently that the best way to get your blog read is, first to link to other people as much as poss, both in the text and in the blogroll (frankly I still don’t quite understand how they manage to link back to you but they do), second to read other people’s blogs and comment, comment, comment.
You can lurk as much and as admiringly as you like around other people’s blogs but you will only count as a faceless ‘stat’ unless you establish a presence there by commenting, if possible, on a regular basis. It helps if the blogs you go to are based around the same ‘niche’ or area of interest as your own, because in this way you become a part of an online community; become known to the other bloggers and regular commenters within it and get a feel for who among them particularly interests you.
As I’ve always said I am still very much a novice at the art of blogging. I am quite in awe of the many, brilliant young women bloggers there are… Dumped by a Hallucination and her many cohorts for instance but they have essentially grown up in a different world to the one I did. But I am loving the learning process, I have to say, and if I still have few comments, the kind Zania has helped me to understand that it is not necessarily a direct reflection on my general rubbishness.
It is true that it is indeed difficult to know what to say to someone who is going through extreme mental distress: that is one factor that might influence a lack of comments on depression blogs in general. But in my case there are other factors at work as well. I do need to be more blog-sociable, cross-reference more, link more, comment more, and as for the world of tagging and key words, that is still a complete mystery to me, but I’m confident I will get there in the end!
But the essential thing to remember in all this is that I love blogging. I blog because I thoroughly enjoy it, because I think the Internet in general and blogging in particular is one of the very best things about living in these times, and we might as make the most of it. I don’t blog entirely in the hope of having an appreciative audience, although naturally, that would greatly add to the satisfaction. I blog for the sheer joy of blogging and because now I’ve started, I really, really don’t want to stop.
Take care all!
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