Finding Homes For Unwanted Babies Is Loveliest Part Of Child Welfare Work

Chronicle (Levin), 8 July 1948, Page 8

Finding Homes For Unwanted Babies Is Loveliest Part Of Child Welfare Work

FINDING suitAble foster parents for unwanted children is only one of the many tasks that fall to the lot of a State child welfare officer, but to Miss Lorna Hodder, of Palmerston North,^ it is the "loveliest part of her ditties." . She told this to the Plqnket members of Levin and district when she described her ditties. to 'the annual meeting Qf the Levin Society on Monday night. \ It was amazing the number of enquiries that she received for foster children. In fact it was now becoming hard to find suiiicient- babies — "even Warder than State houses" — s&id Miss Hodder, and the people who were getting them were ihdeed fortunate.

Adoption figures had- risen considerably over the past ten years, contihufed • Miss Hodder. Ten years ago the figure had been 316 whereas in the year ended March 31, 1947, children registered. as having"been adopted totalled 1383." Though she always 'derived satisfaction from flnding a good home for such children the fact of having to do so always saddened her, said Miss Hodder. She always did her' level best to keep the children wiuh their parents, and was sorry When, for reasons of ■separation or finance, it was necessary for the parents toi part wi.th their child. The gulf betweeh the child and its parents widened the long*er the child was separated from them, and she had noticed that in the majority of cases of delinquency among children it was found that the child had been parted from its mothe'r at a tender age. In some cases it was hard to place a child, as the foster parent might not be the one suited to the child, or the child suited for the home found for it. Though every.^effort was made to match the best types, the departmental ofiicers stiii r'elt a great responsibility. The department always liked to see a child settled in a home permanently, as it realised that shifting it from home to home was not in the best interests of the child. If- a child was found, for various reasons, to be unsuitable for adoption, then the department took over its custody. This was done through the Ghildren's Court and a suitable home- found for it. ; - There were many cases where the foster parents grew very fond of the children and adopted them. This was done in Court after the child had been with its foster parents for three months. Every home in which a child went was registered, and visits paid by the child welfare officers to see how the child was faring. Speaking of her activities in the Children's Court, Miss Hodder said that rhe proceedings were of a confidential nature and were held in an ordinary room, with only the principal persons connected with the case present. Sometimes the appearance of a child in Court was not always the child's fault but the parents. Child welfare ofiicers worked hard to keep children out of Court and felt sometimes that they had failed if they were unable to do so. Sometimes they came across shocking instances of neglect . by parents, but- in many cases it was found that such neglect arose from sub-mentality-. In some cases it was found necessary to seek a Court order to separate a child

from its parents on the grounds that there was physical or moral danger. Thorough investigations were always made before such a step, and on the results of these investigations the magistrate might be compelled to commit the child to the care of the Child Welfare Department. As a policy the department did not believe in putting children in institutions, but as far as possible put them in tbe care of State foster parents, where they could grow up as one of the family. There \yere not nearly enough foster homes in Levin, said the speaker, and she asked that if the Plunket Society knew of'any persons who, would be willing to take in such children she would be more than pleased. "We know the nicest of children who are needing homes' through _.no fault of their own," concludeci Miss Hodder.