Family services needs to prevent abuse says Adam
(CNS): With the Department of Family Services facing increased pressure on their services as a result of the current economic difficulties, the minister with responsibility for the department has said it is important that the most vulnerable are helped first. Mike Adam told staff that the challenge was to ensure that they plugged loop-holes to prevent abuse of the system and sharpened delivery of key services to the most vulnerable, while focusing on programmes to empower clients to help themselves. He also said the department needed to promote foster care as a means of placing young people in healthy environments.
The minister of community affairs and housing met with DCFS staff from the West Bay and George Town Office at Mirco Centre last week to discuss streamlining services so they can continue to help poor and vulnerable Caymanians without an increase in their budget during the worsening economic crisis.
“While there are at present no plans to either increase or reduce the budgetary allocations for services to clients, we must work together to ensure that the funds we do have are used in the most effective way,” the Minister said. Adam explained that the ministry is in the process of developing the Poor Relief Regulations which will provide for the conditions under which poor relief is awarded and suggested a renewed emphasis on the DCFS welfare-to-work programme STARSS (Support Towards Autonomy Retraining and Self-Sufficiency) which has been successful for some clients.
The purpose of STARSS is to provide people with life and job skills training, job preparation, and support services allowing them to develop a self-sufficiency plan to help them out of their present situation and into work.
Another issue which the minister said the DCFS needed to promote was foster care as a means of placing young people in healthy environments. “Foster care will enable our children to be in an environment where they can get individualised care and nurturing; this will better aid their social development,” Adam stated.
Category: Local News
The way forward is to stop allowing non-Caymanians from bringing in their children/dependents from foreign countries when the parents cannot afford to support them on their minimum wages here and then they go to Social Services where they are put into the system, sent tothe public schools and receive free health care.
Social Services (SS) continue to help the Caymanians who are in need of help, but if you are able and can work I think you need to try and help yourselves as well and stop depending on SS to give you hand-outs where there are Caymanian families who desperately need the help!!
There is work out there, what you need to do is get up off your a%%#@ and go find a job!!
And also Caymanians ought to face the same restrictions. There are a lot of Caymanians, both new and old, importing foreign nationals who they have no intention or ability to support. That leaves all of us to pay. This is madness and must be stopped.
Very good decision to stop the abuse now happening in the Family Service Department. Within the past 10 years far too many people have been abusing the system. It is time to make people accountable for their actions. Sure help the poor and needy but put an end to the welfare society that we are fast becoming.
People need to realize if they are able bodied and can find work you should have no other choice but to work. There is no unemployment in the Cayman Islands not with 26,000 work permits.
Government must also stop importing poverty to this county and I will not get into this as you know exactly what I am taking about. We have become a penny wise and pound foolish society.
Although I feel for the people being supported by social services I must admit I am a bit taken back to recently learn that we are supporting people from other countries. I had always thought that social services was for Caymanians only and donated generously every year.
So I have to ask – In these hard economical times when we have so many of our own people (Caymanians) in need and doing without why are we supporting others????
In the future, before donating, I want to know exactly what and for whom my funds will be used.
It was not so long ago a paedophile was convicted and half the messages on CNS were by apologists offering support to the man!
MIke genuinely cares, he has my full respect.
Mike is a follower who failed CAL miserably, & he does not have my respect. He follows his leader no matter what! Until the day that he can stand up for himself I cannot respect the man. Yes, he designates well once given orders (I know from CAL days), but to actually get up & "do a ting" forget about it! (Hey Mike, did Mac say it was ok to do that?)
You are obviously one of the former disgruntled and most likely dismissed Cayman Airways employees. I worked with and for Mike for years and Cayman Airways and found him to be a very compassionate and good leader. Unfortunately, many people saw his good heartedness as a weakness. Mike pulled no punches when he needed to and made tough decisions in tough times. He worked for a very political organization and when he disagreed with Chuckie, he was let go. Of course we know how short term a leader he was.
As far as following your leader, we can’t all be leaders, some of us must be followers. Unfortunately, this is normally seen by people such as yourself as weakness. Good leaders come from learning from good leaders!
I agree, "good leaders come from learning from good leaders"! That is the point! Unfortunately Mike is learning from one of the worst leaders imaginable! XXXXX & dictatorship is nothing good to learn!
And yes, I am disgruntled. I know first hand how poor a leader Mike-Mike is, I am talking from years of experience, & believe me when I say that the failures of CAL during his years had much to do with his poor leadership, & that is undeniable.
That’s pretty interesting considering some of the best times Cayman Airways had was under Mike’s leadership! Hmmmmmmm……imagine that!?? Don’t believe me…..go check the records, FOI.
Go Mike and go Mac…..you’re both doing an excellent job!
This is a huge problem and doesn’t get the attention it deserves due to the secretive nature of the family unit here in Cayman. The culture is a culture of secrets and that creates a perfect environment for sustained abuse.
Recently 2 men charged with the abuse of a young child were released which sends the wrong message to possible victims of this destructive criminal act.
Extended families need to be aware and schools and neighbors be aware and protect children.
I am glad to see that Mr Adams has taken a genuine interest in juveniles and the need for more foster homes in our Island.
Fundamentally, the home is the first place that children learn to love, to be loved, how to behave and react to situations encountered.
As a child, it is not easy to be in a situation and feel helpless when your father is beating your mother (or vice versa), or one or both of your parents are on drugs, not have food to eat or to be molested by a family member or friend, etc. It is very easy to follow in those footsteps or worst yet is the emotional abuse that child has to face on probably a daily basis.
For too many years foster children have been looked down on by society but the times need to change. I know that any time that I say that I grew up in foster care most people automatically cringe and assume that I was a rude or rebellious child but that was not the case… my home environment was not suitable for a child and fortunately I was removed from that harm. I am not sure what I would have been today had it not been for that intervention. Most of the time when you see a teenager or young child acting up it is because something is wrong at home or somewhere familiar to them but with that extra attention and love as a foster parent you can make a difference on how that child sees the world. Slow down, take the time to listen and show that child that someone cares about them, often that is all they really want to know. A lot of us who were born or found ourselves in unfortunate circumstances have grown to be law abiding, upstanding citizens of these Islands.
The road has not been easy for most of us foster children, but one thing for sure, we appreciate those wonderful people that opened their hearts and homes to us when we needed it most; who loved us like their own children. Think of the reward that YOU would feel if you became a foster parent and had that chance to make such a significant change in a young person’s life.
I want to appeal to all of the readers of CNS to look within their hearts to open their home to a poor unfortunate child(ren) who, without proper guidance, can end up going down the wrong path. I must warn however that fostering might not be for everyone because you are sometimes faced with challenging situations but some of you can make the difference…. it just takes patience, faith and goodwill for a child to strive.
The foster homes available now are very limited and are often stretched to capacity. Please help!! Support our future and Mr Adams in his quest to find more foster homes. If you dont think that you could handle it on a full time basis there are mentoring programmes set up like Big Brother, Big Sisters which you could join and still make an impact on a child’s llife, or make a donation to one of those programmes. There are so many ways that you can help. Please remember that these children are our future so we need to make a real effort to help nuture them into good citizens.
God bless you all. (BTW can you all stop bashing Mr Adams and look at the message he is trying to bring to us all No I am not a UDP supporter either, just a supporter of healthy childhoods)
Mike, please confirm the department’s position on financial support for non-Caymanians?
I wish he would confirm this, because there are so many caymanians that NEED the help and can’t recieve it due to the fact that so many Non-Caymaians are getting the help that the CAYMANIANS should b gettin’ but not only from social services but Churches as well.
Poor Mike. He’s a nice guy, but this mess of everyone having a hand in DCFS cookie jar was created by his leader and it’s very likely that as soon as he pulls one hand out, his leader will be slapping him on the hand and shoving the hand he had just pulled out, right back in!
What he should talk about is trying to prevent election abuse, because that is something he & his UDP colleagues know very well! My, my, my, alot of that went on during the last elections! It was pointed out to the necessary authorities but nothing was done; what a surprise!
Poor Mikey, I didn’t even know he was still around he is so quiet.
Before the election he was all over the place, in places he didn’t even know existed in Cayman. He was handing out phone numbers (& plenty of tempting goodies), going into strange places for him. But now, LORD, we can’t see him, hear him, or get in touch with him. He has gone back to his normal life. What gullible fools we were, BUT NOT AGAIN, Mikey! Not again!
Mike is agood guy and he has my full respect
Hahahaha….what a joke! Mike is the only one we still see all over the place and those places aren’t "strange" to him. He knows them all too well and is actually trying to help them rather than just showing his face.
You are some ungrateful bunch in this country. It’s a wonder anyone wants to help you at all!