The case of Naomi Hill - the four-year-old disabled girl whose mother was convicted of her murder this week - is about as tragic as they come: a mother with a history of mental health problems who never came to terms with her mother's disability.

As Scope said in its release it throws up perennial questions about the level of support given both to parents of disabled children and parents with a mental health problem.

Obviously we can't judge what issues for services were thrown up by this case - not until Flintshire Safeguarding Children Board produces the serious case review - but do the issues raised resonate?

Such a tragic waste of 2 lives.  Parents of children born with or who develop disabilities do not recieve enough support. There is still a stigma attached to disability ( at all ages) and little professional understanding of the difficulties experienced within a family. Its not just the parents who have to adjust it also affects other family members such as siblings,grandparents etc.                         Parents can take many years to eventually accept that their much wanted and much loved baby is not perfect and can be overwhelmed by the prospect of the life long commitment this can bring.                                                                                            Empty nest syndrome within these families is almost an impossibility and parents understandably worry about the future for their children.                                                                                                                                                                                                               To have or develop a mental health issue as well must be excruciatingly painful to cope with.                                                            Parents with one or the other ( a mental illness or a child with a disability) require ongoing support and advice but to have both must be such a terribly lonely situation to be in.                                                                                                                                     

An unwise response Mithran, and I think Scope's press release (covered in the Guardian) even more unwise.

 Clearly, there's an enormous amount more support which could and should be given to the parents of disabled children, but that doesn't mean that every case in which a murderous parent kills a disabled child is - directly or indirectly - linked to this issue.

 I would imagine that the parents of many disabled children - including those who might feel inclined to castigate the government and local authorities regarding the support they received, would be deeply offended at the implication that killing a child was in any sense whatsover a comprehensible or predictable response to what is, essentially, an issue of social policy.

 Was there any implication or suggestion that lack of social care support for the child paid any part whatsoever in this tragic case?

 For example, it's sad that many overweight / obese people suffer discrimination in employment and unkindness in personal relationships, perhaps, in part, because of society's obsession with appearance But that doesn't mean that, if an ugly, overweight, paedophile, kills a child means that this case would in any way be related to popular conceptions about body image.

 

 

I hope that the follwoing comments do not offend but I do feel that children and parents of children who have a disability do receive a mixed bag of support depending on where you reside in Britian. I cannot begin to understand the frustrations and sheer despair that some parents must feel by the lack of appropriate support. This is support that they need not what others feel they need. It saddens me that yet again it has taken the death of a child to highl ight these issues and would strongly press for the government to recognise the need within this country to support these families. It is hard enough in these uncertain time to care for children without the worry that your much needed services may be cut or removed.

Apologies eastend 11, I didn't mean to suggest there were any such issues in this case (regarding lack of support) - which was why I said we shouldn't pre-judge this ahead of the serious case review - but just wanted to use it as a prompt for a discussion of this issue.

I think that was also Scope's motivation but I can't speak for them.

 

Well, may I comment as a disabled person and the mother of two disabled children?

I was born with an uncommon disease 'intramuscular cavernous heamangiomas'.  In some ways, I am lucky...those who get them in the brain, it is normal for them to 'burst' and you die instantly.  I am 'lucky'- I have them in the SOLES of my feet- yes you read that right.  (The best description I can give is imagine someone tore open the soles of your feet, inserted a golf ball into the instep/arc of your foot, sewed it up and then said walk on it.)  I am sure people can understand how mentally and physically exhausting that can be to someone. (And might make them a bit ill tempered at times!)

 Both of my son's have PCD... which fortunately is not Cystic Fibrosis (as my oldest child was originally diagnosed with) but the treatment system is the same. I must say that I recieved ZERO support from Child Services.

 I came to the 'attention of Child Social Care and Health'.  It was discovered that I had been so stressed out and over whelmed with no help, that I had a stroke (hence the report that I was walking funny and slurring words- So I was reported as drunk at 3pm at the school gates  But people in authority  were ready to attack me.

 Yes, I am the first to admit, I have a stress disorder, which is classed as a mental illness. Yes, we are made to feel ashamed and embarrassed about our family's 'illness/sickness'. But our home is spotless, our children are taught right and wrong, I have lived through my boys being beaten up at school because  they or their mother is different.  My children are well fed and eat well.  They understand the importance of education. 

And outside my family, has anyone ever asked 'how are you'? Nope.  I think I probably cope better than many- and for many reasons.

 Eastend 11, I have no idea why you have brought paedophilia into the story. 

The bottom line is- you accept people or not. My boys are just very thin- no matter what they are fed- it is part illness and part genetics.  But it doesn't stop them doing well in all aspects of life.  People assume I am 'not all there' because I walk with a limp and sometimes can't control some muscles.  I have a Masters Degree and am a Member of Mensa.

 

So, yes, this is a tragic story, but not one that I am un used to. 

 

The question is, do we let it continue or do we do what Social Care and Health are really meant there for?

TC

 

 

This is why we have to reform care proceedings to release money for support because i doubt that any government would make us pay more taxes to give more money for support. Some single people I know object to paying for education when they have no children and many older people who automatically get the additional heating allowance may not even consider that if they are rich enough that they could give it to support someone else.

I left my social services job because I saw how much money went to solicitors rather than used to support families with disabled family members.

The EDCM - Every Disabled Child Matters - campaign is led by four organisations working with disabled children and their families - Contact a Family, (the) Council for Disabled Children (CDC), Mencap and the Special Education Consortium. The campaign challenges "challenge politicians and policy-makers to make good on the Government’s commitment that every child matters." It's home page is;

 http://www.edcm.org.uk/Page.asp

 

In October 2006 EDCM's contribution to an ad hoc committee performing a parliamentary hearing on the provision of services for disabled children was published;

 

http://www.edcm.org.uk/pdfs/edcm_parlhearingsreport_full_final.pdf

 

The report makes disturbing reading, notably because it takes contributions from parents, carers and professionals working in the system of provision for disabled youngsters and with exceptions indicates that services are particularly poor in our nation and worst of all, attitudes to disabled children and their parents and carers are sometimes disgusting. Here's a few excerpts;

"I am practically full-time learning how the ‘system’ works and researching and implementing all my own early interventions – even after pouring hours over months into trying to locate suitable education for my son. So far I have plenty of people telling me what to do, but no-one helping me to do any of it."

"I have recently been accused by social services of suffering from Munchausen Syndrome and fabricating my youngest child’s symptoms even though my three other children already have an ASD diagnosis, as does her father."

"I have had feedback that people are so frustrated that there will be no further funding for it so many programmes have stopped. It was supposed to be supported by mainstreaming but realistically that won’t happen."

"Wouldn’t it be nice to be asked ‘What would you like? What would make family life normal?’ Parents of disabled children don’t ask for anything that other families don’t get – it’s just that when you’ve got a disabled child, the structure isn’t there, the system isn’t in place."

Some graphs are detailed in the PDF, with a summary that should be of concern to anyone concerned with children's services;

"Four-fifths (81%) of the parents rated social care services for disabled children as poor, while half of the parents rated education services (52%) and health services (48%) as poor."

Yet in New Zealand, a considerably smaller nation with fewer resources, they appear to be able do things a bit better;

"In New Zealand all babies born under 1500 grams, or born before 32 weeks, are offered, on discharge from hospital, a specialist adviser visit once a week for four months either at home or at a clinic. By 12 months many of these families were found to need no further specialist intervention but were able to access mainstream services."