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Trauma of family separations may linger for FLDS children



 
 
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Old June 5th 08, 08:45 PM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default Trauma of family separations may linger for FLDS children


Trauma of family separations may linger for FLDS children

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9490673

By Julia Lyon and Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 06/05/2008 12:36:01 PM MDT

Posted: 12:34 PM- More than a half century after Arizona separated
polygamous families from their fathers for more than two years, women
still weep when they recall childhood memories of the time.

Their enduring pain may foreshadow the legacy of April's raid at
the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. Though FLDS children were in state
custody for about two months, they lost both parents and often, siblings
- creating an emotional impact that can linger far longer, according to
mental health professionals.

"Those kids will never be the same from when they left - never,"
said Bonnie Peters, executive director of the Family Support Center, a
Salt Lake City counseling agency whose clients include members of
polygamous communities.

For many of the children, the disruption of their lives continues,
as their families settle into apartments and homes away from the ranch
to await the results of a child welfare investigation.
The raid by Texas authorities led to more than 450 children, from
infants to teenagers, being taken into state custody and placed in
shelters across the state.

A district judge on Monday released the children to their parents,
members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Just how each child reacts to the experience will depend upon the
individual, but post traumatic stress disorder is


likely for many, said Patricia Merkley, a therapist who runs a Utah
support group for women who are living in or have left polygamous
communities.

Depending on age and other factors, symptoms may include
flashbacks, night terrors, obsessive thoughts, hypervigilance and
extreme reactions. A child may fixate on the idea that mom is going to
die or something is going to happen to her and she'll suddenly vanish,
Merkley said.


Reactions may be exacerbated because they were taken from a rural,
isolated and collective family environment into a new culture. They were
exposed to processed foods, new toys such as Slip 'n Slide and people
who dressed and acted differently.
"That can make them have an accelerated sense of trauma," Peters said.


Dan Barlow was 21 when Arizona authorities intent on wiping out
polygamy descended on Short Creek, as the FLDS community on the state
border with Utah was then called. He had children taken into Arizona
custody then - and today has children and grandchildren who were taken
into custody in the Texas raid.


A crucial difference is that mothers and siblings remained together
in 1953, he said.

"My little 4-year-old granddaughter there [in Texas] said, 'Mama,
they put me in jail,' " he said. "I don't think our children felt that
[in 1953] because they had their mothers. You can about stand anything
if you've got your mother with you."


After the Arizona raid, Barlow's wife and three children were
placed with a Mesa family, then in a low-income housing development,
before returning home.
Barlow was exiled from the FLDS community in 2004, his wives and
children reassigned to other men. Among them: Sarah Draper, who lived
with their four young children at the YFZ Ranch.

Testifying during a mid-April FLDS custody hearing, child
psychologist Bruce Perry had warned that children ages 5 and under were
most likely to be traumatized by being taken into state custody. He said
efforts should be made to keep them with their mothers.

Texas Child Protective Services followed that advice only for
children under 12 months, and despite an early promise to strive to keep
family groups together, separated dozens of siblings.

Earlier this week, a CPS official said the state will examine what
services may be offered to reunited FLDS families. Counseling is
sometimes provided for families when a child returns home after foster
care, said Marleigh Meisner, a CPS spokeswoman.

As the area public mental health provider, Hill Country Community
Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center has notified residents that
support and debriefing is available.

"What they do with that on a collective basis is up to them," said
Linda Werlein, Hill Country executive director. "We don't knock on
anyone's door and say, 'You have to get services.' "

A few residents had requested help after the raid, she said.
For FLDS parents, signs of the stress their children experienced
are already evident.

Lori Jessop, 25, said her 4-year-old daughter refers to any one who
shows up at their temporary home in San Antonio as a police officer.


Her 2-year-old has reverted to diapers and a pacifier. The children
wake frequently in the night and cling to their parents during the day.
Other parents say their children had a hard time understanding they
were really going home with them; some said their small ones acted as
though they hardly knew them.


During an interview this week, the young sons of Edson Jessop and
Zevanda Young hid their faces and told reporters they would just as soon
throw rocks at them than talk.


These parents say they know it will take love, patience and time
until their children feel safe again.
When Heidi Foster's eight children, raised in a polygamous Davis
County group, returned home in 2005 after months in foster care, a
long-term impact remained, she said. One child was very angry. Many of
them were insecure, wanting to sleep in her room.


The youngest had nightmares that began in foster care and continued
for months after the children returned home, she said.


Foster is part of the Davis County Cooperative, also known as the
Kingstons after its leaders. She describes the group as fundamentalist
Mormons who participate in multiple committed relationships. Foster said
her group, like the FLDS, denounces cigarettes, drugs and profanity and
encourages healthy, homemade meals.


Returning home after foster care stints ranging from about five to
18 months, all of Foster's children were very emotional, she said. Home
had become more sweet.


So had their appetites: a newfound interest in junk food took time
to fade. Foster's 3-year-old would cry at the movies until his parents
realized what the problem was: he didn't have the candy his foster
parents would buy him.


A small silver lining: family's increased solidarity.
"It's funny ... sibling rivalries were gone," she recalled. "They
had such a renewed appreciation for each other."








An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.

every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST

Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia

http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6

This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.

http://www.jbs.org/node/4632

Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail

FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc

HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN

http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html

Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News

http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close

Read the studies online.

Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"

http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm

MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf

Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports:

www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren

The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
 




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