STRESS DRINKING
LEADS TO DAMAGED BABIES
Relationship break down doesn’t happen overnight it is usually the result of a long unhappy period that quite often includes the months of pregnancy.
Increasingly, especially in Western society, relief from life’s stress comes from drowning the sorrows with alcohol. It doesn’t work of course but that’s beside the point. People think it does and so the self abuse of copious amounts of wine, sprits and beers will continue.
Although many pregnant women give up drinking many more don’t. They try to cut down but then the need to ‘feel better’ about their lot in life drives them back to alcohol.
In many parts of the world authorities are tackling what they believe
Is one of the main reasons for the increase in children being born with learning difficulties, hyperactivity, poor memory and speech difficulties. These difficulties are collectively referred to as Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). According to The National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome – UK, this is such a well recognised condition in the rest of the world that there are over 250,000 existing websites on the subject. (if you are searching you will need to use the international spelling of ‘Fetal’).
In the US all products containing alcohol carries a health warning ‘(US) GOVERNMENT WARNING: ACCORDING TO THE SURGEON GENERAL, WOMEN SHOULD NOT DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES DURING PREGNANCY BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF BIRTH DEFECTS’.
FACTS:
• Alcohol can cause more damage to an unborn baby than any other drug.
• FAS is one of the leading known causes of mental retardation.
• FAS can cause serious lifelong social and behavioural problems.
• FAS and alcohol related birth defects are 100% preventable if no alcohol is consumed during pregnancy.
• There is no safe level of alcohol during pregnancy.
USEFUL INFORMATION:
If you have any specific concerns do get in touch with our experts http://www.mychildcontact.com
Email : kenn@mychildcontact.com
Helpline: Freephone 0800 0283163
The National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome –UK
Helpline: 0870 0333 700
Email: nofas-uk@midlantic.co.uk
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Mum Riggi Kills Children
INNOCENT CHILDREN MURDERED BY MUM
Luca, Austin and Cecilia Riggi have apparently been murdered by their 46 year old mother Theresa.
What state of mind must she have been in to have taken the precious lives of her birth children?
First reports indicate a marital and child custody dispute. Of course, unfortunately these tragic deaths are not the first. At the time of the Moat killings, in the village of Holbrook Derbyshire Dad Andrew Cairns stabbed to death his partner Rachel Slack and their 23 month old son Auden (see mychildcontact.com blogspot earlier report of 4th June 2010).
There are many similar reports and it seems as though violence is becoming the norm to solve child custody disputes.
All this comes at a time when the Government is responding to a Family Justice System under enormous strain by:
• Capping the fees Independent Social Workers thereby undermining the important role ISW’s have in ensuring that children and families can have a independent professional voice to challenge finance driven Local Authority Social Care workers
• And secondly, causing the loss of almost half of the Family Law firms because of the Legal Aid Commission’s decision not to award them new contracts, in an effort to cut costs.
Without doubt, these decisions will seriously affect the welfare and safety of vulnerable children and disadvantaged families.
At mychildcontact.com we are actively seeking the appointment of a Minister with sole responsibility for Child Contact, Access and Custody and challenging poor decision making. You can help in this by letting your MP know the serious consequences of the Government’s actions.
On our Spring Garden Consultancy web site and on our CEO’s own site we have a letter that you can down load and send to your MP.
www.springgarden.co.uk
www.kenngriffiths.com
MP’s Name Here
House of Commons
London YOUR NAME
SW1A 0AA ADDRESS
DATE
Dear
Reduction in Family Law Firms Offering Legal Aid And Reducing the Fees of Independent Social Workers.
Almost half of the firms currently offering Family Law work across the country have been refused legal aid contracts. This work involves some of the most vulnerable children and families in our society.
In defence of these decisions the Legal Services Commission say that they have awarded contracts on the basis of quality, however, in reality many experienced solicitors have not been awarded contracts and contracts have been awarded to firms with very little experience.
Cases most hit by the loss of so many Family Law Firms involve contested contact, access custody and residence issues, removal of children from their parents, adoptions, and incidents of domestic violence.
In many of these cases Children and Family, Judges and Magistrates need an independent professional social work assessment. Cutting the fees of Independent Social Workers force experienced and professional workers out of the vitally independent role.
I would ask that you raise these issues with the Minister and suggest an urgent review of the situation.
Yours faithfully,
Name
Remember to include your address/contact details, to show that you live in the constituency
Luca, Austin and Cecilia Riggi have apparently been murdered by their 46 year old mother Theresa.
What state of mind must she have been in to have taken the precious lives of her birth children?
First reports indicate a marital and child custody dispute. Of course, unfortunately these tragic deaths are not the first. At the time of the Moat killings, in the village of Holbrook Derbyshire Dad Andrew Cairns stabbed to death his partner Rachel Slack and their 23 month old son Auden (see mychildcontact.com blogspot earlier report of 4th June 2010).
There are many similar reports and it seems as though violence is becoming the norm to solve child custody disputes.
All this comes at a time when the Government is responding to a Family Justice System under enormous strain by:
• Capping the fees Independent Social Workers thereby undermining the important role ISW’s have in ensuring that children and families can have a independent professional voice to challenge finance driven Local Authority Social Care workers
• And secondly, causing the loss of almost half of the Family Law firms because of the Legal Aid Commission’s decision not to award them new contracts, in an effort to cut costs.
Without doubt, these decisions will seriously affect the welfare and safety of vulnerable children and disadvantaged families.
At mychildcontact.com we are actively seeking the appointment of a Minister with sole responsibility for Child Contact, Access and Custody and challenging poor decision making. You can help in this by letting your MP know the serious consequences of the Government’s actions.
On our Spring Garden Consultancy web site and on our CEO’s own site we have a letter that you can down load and send to your MP.
www.springgarden.co.uk
www.kenngriffiths.com
MP’s Name Here
House of Commons
London YOUR NAME
SW1A 0AA ADDRESS
DATE
Dear
Reduction in Family Law Firms Offering Legal Aid And Reducing the Fees of Independent Social Workers.
Almost half of the firms currently offering Family Law work across the country have been refused legal aid contracts. This work involves some of the most vulnerable children and families in our society.
In defence of these decisions the Legal Services Commission say that they have awarded contracts on the basis of quality, however, in reality many experienced solicitors have not been awarded contracts and contracts have been awarded to firms with very little experience.
Cases most hit by the loss of so many Family Law Firms involve contested contact, access custody and residence issues, removal of children from their parents, adoptions, and incidents of domestic violence.
In many of these cases Children and Family, Judges and Magistrates need an independent professional social work assessment. Cutting the fees of Independent Social Workers force experienced and professional workers out of the vitally independent role.
I would ask that you raise these issues with the Minister and suggest an urgent review of the situation.
Yours faithfully,
Name
Remember to include your address/contact details, to show that you live in the constituency
Monday, 2 August 2010
SARAH'S LAW HELPS CHILD CONTACT & ACCESS
SARAH’S LAW can help with positive Child contact and access.
From today the Home Secretary Theresa May is extending the availability of Sarah’s Law Scheme to 24 police force areas across the Country. This is in response to a positive outcome from a recent pilot scheme and the continuing pressure from Sara Payne, the mother of year old Sarah who was murdered in July 2000 by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting.
Quite often in child contact and access cases a staying parent will take up with a new partner with very little knowledge of the new step-parent’s background.
Absent parents are usually the last to know and historically have not had the right to check on the suitability of anyone with regular contact to their children. Sarah’s Law changes this by giving the parent the right to check with police if anyone with regular, unsupervised contact / access to their child has a criminal conviction for child sex offences.
Even as a Court appointed CAFCASS worker I could not have these checks carried out without the written consent of the new partner and this led to delays in proceedings and undermined the possible positive working together of the family.
Another positive outcome is the ability for the police to warn parents if concerns are raised by neighbours or family members such as grandparents.
The pilot scheme was rolled out to police forces in Cambridge, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire in 2008. Today’s announcement will see this being expanded to the Cheshire, Dorset, Durham, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northumbria and Wiltshire force areas.
The Chief Constable of West Mercia Paul West endorsed the objective, in a recent statement…
”These new arrangements are a major development in safeguarding children. They empower members of the public to initiate action aimed at protecting children and will help to increase public confidence in the police and other responsible authorities as part of their role in monitoring sex offenders.”
From today the Home Secretary Theresa May is extending the availability of Sarah’s Law Scheme to 24 police force areas across the Country. This is in response to a positive outcome from a recent pilot scheme and the continuing pressure from Sara Payne, the mother of year old Sarah who was murdered in July 2000 by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting.
Quite often in child contact and access cases a staying parent will take up with a new partner with very little knowledge of the new step-parent’s background.
Absent parents are usually the last to know and historically have not had the right to check on the suitability of anyone with regular contact to their children. Sarah’s Law changes this by giving the parent the right to check with police if anyone with regular, unsupervised contact / access to their child has a criminal conviction for child sex offences.
Even as a Court appointed CAFCASS worker I could not have these checks carried out without the written consent of the new partner and this led to delays in proceedings and undermined the possible positive working together of the family.
Another positive outcome is the ability for the police to warn parents if concerns are raised by neighbours or family members such as grandparents.
The pilot scheme was rolled out to police forces in Cambridge, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire in 2008. Today’s announcement will see this being expanded to the Cheshire, Dorset, Durham, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northumbria and Wiltshire force areas.
The Chief Constable of West Mercia Paul West endorsed the objective, in a recent statement…
”These new arrangements are a major development in safeguarding children. They empower members of the public to initiate action aimed at protecting children and will help to increase public confidence in the police and other responsible authorities as part of their role in monitoring sex offenders.”
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Facebook adoption
FACEBOOK CONTACT
FOR
ADOPTED CHILDREN
AND
THEIR PARENTS
I’m a private investigator regularly asked to locate adopted children. I am a former adoption officer with a large local authority and I have an adopted daughter.
I can see the attraction for anyone involved in contact and adoption issues of using Facebook and other social networking sites to get in touch with their lost loved ones.
However, unsolicited and unmanaged contact is probably the most damaging way to bring about a positive outcome for all concerned.
I fully understand the need to make contact. I can see how the adults may believe that their child is distressed and lonely, especially when they are airing their views on social websites.
Most teenagers will go through a difficult time, but for the adopted, adolescents can be a very traumatic and challenging time. Putting their thoughts and feelings on the web’s pages can be likened to a page of their personal diary. Quite often they do not see the dangers of other people reading and internalising what they think are problems solely due to adoption, when in fact they are emotional ‘growing pains’.
Before reading too much into the writings think about your own transition to adulthood. Remember how traumatic that was! Did you want any adults involved with you at that time? I think not! Your friends were the ones you wanted around you. It’s the same on social websites kids want kids, not relatives, especially relatives they don’t know. Absent parents turning up ‘out of the blue’ is a recipe for disaster.
In every case that I investigated I made it known at the outset that if I did locate the child or absent parents, I would let them know that I’d located them but would not divulge their whereabouts unless they wanted to me to. Even then I built in a cooling off period. Once the decision had been made to meet up I then set about counselling everyone involved not least the adopting parents who quite often were the most threatened and vulnerable.
None of this can happen on a social network. This is dangerous and potentially damaging ground that should not be trodden without a well equipped, qualified professional.
FOR
ADOPTED CHILDREN
AND
THEIR PARENTS
I’m a private investigator regularly asked to locate adopted children. I am a former adoption officer with a large local authority and I have an adopted daughter.
I can see the attraction for anyone involved in contact and adoption issues of using Facebook and other social networking sites to get in touch with their lost loved ones.
However, unsolicited and unmanaged contact is probably the most damaging way to bring about a positive outcome for all concerned.
I fully understand the need to make contact. I can see how the adults may believe that their child is distressed and lonely, especially when they are airing their views on social websites.
Most teenagers will go through a difficult time, but for the adopted, adolescents can be a very traumatic and challenging time. Putting their thoughts and feelings on the web’s pages can be likened to a page of their personal diary. Quite often they do not see the dangers of other people reading and internalising what they think are problems solely due to adoption, when in fact they are emotional ‘growing pains’.
Before reading too much into the writings think about your own transition to adulthood. Remember how traumatic that was! Did you want any adults involved with you at that time? I think not! Your friends were the ones you wanted around you. It’s the same on social websites kids want kids, not relatives, especially relatives they don’t know. Absent parents turning up ‘out of the blue’ is a recipe for disaster.
In every case that I investigated I made it known at the outset that if I did locate the child or absent parents, I would let them know that I’d located them but would not divulge their whereabouts unless they wanted to me to. Even then I built in a cooling off period. Once the decision had been made to meet up I then set about counselling everyone involved not least the adopting parents who quite often were the most threatened and vulnerable.
None of this can happen on a social network. This is dangerous and potentially damaging ground that should not be trodden without a well equipped, qualified professional.
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Children need grandparents
CHILDREN’S CONTACT WITH GRANPARENTS
POSITIVE SAYS GOVERNMENT REPORT
Children who experience family breakdown have more positive outcomes when they can turn to grandparents for support according to the findings of a report commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Wellbeing Evidence Review stresses that the government fully support stable parental relationships but realise that many thousands of children are subject to the stresses of parental separation.
It comes as no surprise that the study’s findings show that there is a higher probability of children experiencing parental separation now than at any time in the history of families.
POSITIVE SAYS GOVERNMENT REPORT
Children who experience family breakdown have more positive outcomes when they can turn to grandparents for support according to the findings of a report commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Wellbeing Evidence Review stresses that the government fully support stable parental relationships but realise that many thousands of children are subject to the stresses of parental separation.
It comes as no surprise that the study’s findings show that there is a higher probability of children experiencing parental separation now than at any time in the history of families.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Kids Need Dads ?
New Fathers 4 Justice staged a demonstrartion outside the home of Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly over the weekend as part of their quest to gain better recognition for fathers trying to get contact to their children.
Dressed in a superhero costume the self appointed spokesman 'Captain Equality' is reported to have threatened the MP with an escalation of the protest "if he fobs us off we will come back and it will not be so humerous next time".
I'm not at all sure that threats of this nature actually help the real issues around father's access to their children.
Over the years I've worked on hundreds of cases involving difficult contact issues. The majority have been father based but not exclusively. I could argue for a Mother's 4 Justice, Grandparents' 4 Justice, Siblings 4 justice, and Parents 4 Justice. All of these have difficult contact issues. The Courts are full to bursting with child contact work.
My honest experieince is that all the professionals involved in child contact do take account of the difficulties for fathers. I don't believe that making veiled threats is a good, constructive ploy. In my opinion all this does is highlight the often misguided belief that the male of the species is angry and violent.
If you think I'm wrong then please feel free to comment www.mychildcontact.com
Dressed in a superhero costume the self appointed spokesman 'Captain Equality' is reported to have threatened the MP with an escalation of the protest "if he fobs us off we will come back and it will not be so humerous next time".
I'm not at all sure that threats of this nature actually help the real issues around father's access to their children.
Over the years I've worked on hundreds of cases involving difficult contact issues. The majority have been father based but not exclusively. I could argue for a Mother's 4 Justice, Grandparents' 4 Justice, Siblings 4 justice, and Parents 4 Justice. All of these have difficult contact issues. The Courts are full to bursting with child contact work.
My honest experieince is that all the professionals involved in child contact do take account of the difficulties for fathers. I don't believe that making veiled threats is a good, constructive ploy. In my opinion all this does is highlight the often misguided belief that the male of the species is angry and violent.
If you think I'm wrong then please feel free to comment www.mychildcontact.com
Friday, 4 June 2010
Dad kills his 23 month baby!!!
With the events in Cumbria taking centre stage in the media circus it's easy to miss the tragic events in Derbyshire's Hobrook Village.
According to early investigations a 44 year old father stabbed to death his 38 year old partner and mother of their 23 month old boy. The toddler was also stabbed and died later in hospital.
Apparently the father was arrested last week following a series of death threats aimed at his former partner. As is often the case, he was not detained and went on to carry out his threats in the most horrific way.
Family disputes, especially involving children, bring out the very worse in people. Death threats are regularly dished out. Thankfully very few people carry these out. That's not to say that they do not terrorise the recipient, they do. Living in fear both for yourself and your children has to be torture.
One of the areas that we want to look into at mychildcontact.com is to help emotionally charged parents to handle their hurt in a more constructive way. I'm sure that everyone has felt the overwhelming sensation that starts in the pit of the stomach and erupts out of every muscle in the body. It is a horrible time and one that causes many people to act in away that they do not like but find hard to stop. Threats and acts of violence spill out, often in full view of the children, sometimes aimed at them.
If you are struggling with your emotions don't bottle them up, talk about your feelings. If you can't talk then write them down. Try to find ways of controlling your anger and hurt. We're here to listen to your story and help if we can. Take a look at our earlier blogs, there you'll find help and guidance or email us with your problems to info@mychildcointact.com
According to early investigations a 44 year old father stabbed to death his 38 year old partner and mother of their 23 month old boy. The toddler was also stabbed and died later in hospital.
Apparently the father was arrested last week following a series of death threats aimed at his former partner. As is often the case, he was not detained and went on to carry out his threats in the most horrific way.
Family disputes, especially involving children, bring out the very worse in people. Death threats are regularly dished out. Thankfully very few people carry these out. That's not to say that they do not terrorise the recipient, they do. Living in fear both for yourself and your children has to be torture.
One of the areas that we want to look into at mychildcontact.com is to help emotionally charged parents to handle their hurt in a more constructive way. I'm sure that everyone has felt the overwhelming sensation that starts in the pit of the stomach and erupts out of every muscle in the body. It is a horrible time and one that causes many people to act in away that they do not like but find hard to stop. Threats and acts of violence spill out, often in full view of the children, sometimes aimed at them.
If you are struggling with your emotions don't bottle them up, talk about your feelings. If you can't talk then write them down. Try to find ways of controlling your anger and hurt. We're here to listen to your story and help if we can. Take a look at our earlier blogs, there you'll find help and guidance or email us with your problems to info@mychildcointact.com
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