STORY TO BE TOLD: Teremoana Jacobs died in October 2007 from pneumonia following a suicide attempt.
AT LAST… Why we are here is acknowledged by an official!!!! Sue Bradford, GO TAKE A FLYING JUMP!
By AMANDA FISHER – The Dominion Post
A coroner is calling on government ministers to take action to stop vulnerable children and young people who have been in Child, Youth and Family care from committing suicide.
Seventeen to 30-year-olds formerly in CYF or mental health authorities’ care should have access to a special fund of money and continued mentoring to cut suicide rates, coroner Ian Smith says.
His recommendations follow the death of 22-year-old Masterton woman Teremoana Jacobs. She died in October 2007 from pneumonia following a suicide attempt.
Ms Jacobs had been under Social Development Ministry guardianship for more than 16 years, from the time her mother died when she was three. Her father died when she was 16.
In his findings, Mr Smith said Ms Jacobs’ tragic story was “all too familiar to me as coroner”.
“Teremoana’s life story should be told in some detail so that at least history can show what this young woman had to endure that may have led to her untimely death.”
The young woman had experienced an unsettled upbringing, had to steal to pay for her lunch as a child, and suffered from depression.
She was shunted between six different households while under CYF guardianship.
Ms Jacobs made a suicide attempt about four years before CYF closed her file when she was 20, and another in the year her file was closed in 2006.
A reference by CYF said: “Teremoana turned 20 in September 2005 and this case needs closing.”
Before the file was closed a social worker made regular contact with Ms Jacobs, helped her and her boyfriend move back into the home of a previous caregiver and provided advice on investment of her inheritance.
“It is clear that at some point in time Teremoana decided that she no longer wished to have CYF involved in her life and she disengaged from her social worker. She moved several times and her social worker was unable to trace her,” Mr Smith’s report said.
Nearly 500 people took their own lives during 2007, latest Health Ministry figures show. Suicide figures were unavailable yesterday for current or former CYF wards.
Mr Smith said young adults aged 20 to 30 were still very vulnerable. More support was needed for those formerly in state guardianship.
Addressing his recommendations to the ministers of social development and employment, youth affairs and health, Mr Smith said a fund could be made available to those in need to assist them through the difficult years.
“But the more important issue is to ensure that there is a rock of stability in these people’s lives.”
He suggested a mentoring programme with guidance from someone the troubled young people could relate to.
A spokesman for duty minister Nick Smith said the Government acknowledged the system needed improving but there were already measures available to help young people’s transition from CYF care.
“The loss of any young life is one too many, but there is support available. We are doing more to help young people deal with what is obviously a very traumatic time.”
A friend of Ms Jacobs welcomed the coroner’s recommendations.
Jade Gerrard believed her friend’s death was avoidable.
“It really sucks, and it shouldn’t have happened. I definitely believe it would be better if there was some help out there for people [in Ms Jacobs' situation].”
Ms Gerrard, who had known Ms Jacobs for 12 years after they met at Petone Central School at age 10, hoped the Government would take heed of the recommendations.
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So… lets get this right…. if you are in CYFS care for their safety… and then leave, you need counseling to keep you safe from the “care” you got… rather than FIX things so these people do not need future help…. whats wrong with that picture?
It would make better sense to ensure CYFS do not screw up any more young lives, so ongoing help isn’t needed. CYFS is creating people that need life long help? WHY?
It confirms what we, at this site, have been saying for years. CYFS needs to be reformed, families need to be listened to, as do the people within the system.
But parliament always ignores the cries for help, they have ignored us, in fact, that whore, Sue Bradford, did her best to destroy this site while she was an MP. Its a pity she did not take notice of what we were saying…. this young lady might still be alive, and any Bradford provided would make more sense than that stupid anti smacking law.
nuff said.
From my own perspective.. after experiencing state care I can understand the desire to kill oneself.
I was moved about repeatedly.. in the space of 3 years while I was in care I lived at 4 different homes.
Not once did Cyfs try to teach me what it was like to be a normal human being… they assumed as they do with most state wards that we are primarily functional.
It took me years of learning how to interact with people properly, learning simple things like table manners or etiquitte.
I think the one thing that needs changing about the state is its assumption that everything is automatically better once you are uplifted and that they only thing required from them after that is board payments and clothing grants.
Little to no effort gets put into these kids once they are in care, and the downer of this situation is that abusers are attracted to jobs within the system that deal with these kids on a regular basis.
Its not the residivist offenders that we need to be worried about most, its blue collared middle income New Zealanders that repeatedly get away with abuse and are never found out.
People love to blame low income families, but in all honesty.. people like John Key and Bill English are just as likely to abuse kids… but more likely to get away with it because of their positions of power and priveledge.
The one reason that I wasnt taken earlier by Cyfs was the fact that my father was the Prime Ministers driver, this allowed my parents to break my body until it was in the state that it now is.
The system is always going to screw up because New Zealanders will only tolerate so much of their taxes going on things like welfare or child protection services.
Government will always push the cheapest and nastiest of policies into arenas like health, welfare and child protection.. so there will always need to be someway of redressing all their screwups.
The problem is that while you have an accountant in charge of social services.. alot more people are going to die needlessly.
Resign Mr Hughes, we dont need a misely old fart like you looking after the best interests of kids in need when you dont actually care about what they need or what would be best for them, when your mind is already set on staying within a budget or better yet for a mutant like you… coming under budget.
When I left Cyfs.. there was no help… even today I gaurantee the help that is available probably consists of a pamphlet with a couple of phone numbers on it and very little else.