Imagine you are sane . You share the same stresses as anybody in the community...possible more because you have 2 children with types of Autism as do other members of your family but beyond this you are mentally well and have a high IQ. Now picture this strange and insane scenario. The Principal of a school decides you are insane and that your parenting is responsible for your children's Autism. Now imagine being held responsible for behaviours that are typical of a child with Aspergers. Thats right YOU are responsible for their anxiety ,learning difficulties ,melt-downs etc because the Principal has decided without YOU the children would be "normal"....You might then begin to imagine how I feel except it gets worse .MUCH worse.
Imagine the same Principal receives reports from other Health-Care professionals that demonstrate your capacity to care for your children and in fact commend you for your high quality of parenting .Understand also that the childrens psychologist has had regular home visits. However the Principal is not convinced by these reports by Experts with the essential expertise. She knows better. Despite only seeing you 4 or 5 times and NEVER with your children she somehow has a gut feeling that you are damaging your children.Now imagine a feeling of complete despair.
Under the safe blanket of " qualified privilige " the Principal can inform Docs and the Police,her own staff and the DET that she genuinely believes you are mentally ill and that the children are at risk in your care " She can do this without a shred of evidence and the DET won't expect her to provide any . In fact if you complain about this horrifying treatment the DET will also proceed to diagnose you under the same safe blanket of "qualified privilige" and all that will be needed is for you to demonstrate legitimate stress at a very distressing situation. Show any emotion and you will be damned.
If you dare to complain again you can these be accused of aggression, villification and creating conflict and fear ....these very powerful and damaging allegations can be made without a single specific fact or shred of evidence. The DET can and will ignore your requests for dates,times,names and refuse to inform you with ANY information. Your requests for mediation with these unnamed staff will also be ignored. Can you imagine how I felt and fell ? I can't even describe it.
If you were not mentally ill before this treatment you may feel yourself teetering on the brink . You will certainly become depressed and upset and appalled and this won't go in your favour at all ,it will serve as further fuel for the DET to burn you with. Plead all you like but not a drop of compassion will come your way ! Interestingly despite the DET stating and insisting you are mentally ill and that the Principal has every right to say so you will not be offered any extra support or assistance...instead you will be ridiculed and treated with increasing hostility and smothered with the stigma the DET seem to feel that anyone with mental Health issues deserves !
Then imagine the ensuing horror as it dawns on you that even if all your children's Health Professional support you the DET can and will ignore them all and proceed to write a 30 page review about you that carefully omits any reference to Expert opinion that contradicts their own. Now imagine the desperation that sets in as you are forced to take your children to other professionals in the vain hope that the DET may listen to them. Abandon all hope now because it simply doesn't matter that you have paid $700 to prove to the DET that you not mentally ill.If the DET states you ,you are. They don't need any psychiatric or psychologist training.
The fact is I have Aspergers.I am NOT mentally ill. Autism is not a mental illness.I have a High IQ.I am eloquent and expressive but I fail utterly to read between the lines,I am a dismal failure at sarcasm and fall for it all the time,I am trusting ,I rigidly tell the truth and do not lie, I am possibly fatally honest , I am horrified by lies but I will believe you unless I know the otherwise,I am naive, I am shy but outspoken, I am most likely to make a social gaffe , I am an eternal collector of trivia, but why is this grounds for such appalling discrimination and abuse .......what happened to my human rights ? What happened to my childrens rights ? Under this blanket of "qualified privilige" that the DET hides behind you can and will be stripped of all worth.You have NO rights at all.
There may be "qualified privilige" but an abuse of such a privilige by people in highly respected and powerful positions should not be possible. All people should be held accountable for their actions. I have a letter from the DET that accuses me of daring to question highly respected Officers in the DET. I have another letter stating these people are beyond question......are they? I believed Australia was a democracy. Nobody should be beyond question. Surely it is my right to question anyone no matter what their position of power,authority and respect . Where is the respect for me ? Where are the HONEST answers to my questions?.
How can this happen in Australia ?
Comments
Re: An abuse of Privilige.The DET can now diagnose mental ...
This is just how the DET work and if you dare to question them you are relentlessly bullied and harassed. The poor treatment of people with Autism/Aspergers seems to be a hallmark of DET. At the Carenne School, Autistic students have been tied up, locked in a yard called the pig pen and had the Police call on them when they are having a melt down.
The DET is ran along the lines of the Soviet KGB and will do anything to gain the upper hand.
You might also like to look at www.wbde.org for more information on the DET.
Terminally Ill Government
The Privacy Commission should be all over this otherwise what are we paying it for? On http://www.wbde.org/references.php , 2 of the Privacy Principals are:
_____________
**Principle 1 - Manner and purpose of collection of personal information
1. Personal information shall not be collected by a collector for inclusion in a record or in a generally available publication unless:
(a) the information is collected for a purpose that is a lawful purpose directly related to a function or activity of the collector; and
(b) the collection of the information is necessary for or directly related to that purpose.
2. Personal information shall not be collected by a collector by unlawful or unfair means.
**Principle 3 - Solicitation of personal information generally
Where:
(a) a collector collects personal information for inclusion in a record or in a generally available publication; and
(b) the information is solicited by the collector:
the collector shall take such steps (if any) as are, in the circumstances, reasonable to ensure that, having regard to the purpose for which the information is collected:
(c) the information collected is relevant to that purpose and is up to date and complete; and
(d) the collection of the information does not intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the individual concerned
__________
Principal 8 also looks to me like it is applicable.
Perhaps you can head in that direction?
However, years ago, although I took the evidence of this in my situation to the Privacy Commission they ignored everything. I repeatedly sent the material to all the supposed responsible authorities from Prime Ministers down through the members of parliament, premiers, ombudsman’s offices, attorney-generals, ICAC, HCCC, etc for 15 years. Out of frustration at the failure of our paid representatives to change anything, a couple of years ago some concerned, unpaid, members of the public, performed a massive investigation http://www.wbde.org/documents/Procedulal_Fairness_Panels.php which led them to judge and label the offensive documents "NULL AND VOID DUE TO LACK OF PROCEDURAL FAIRNESS AND NATURAL JUSTICE"
The above is not just a state problem, the standards of our public service are pretty constant throughout Australia at both state and federal level as public servants move freely through the agencies, position.
The standards are set from the top down. Mr Rudd, it is your job, as it was for the displaced Mr Howard is to ensure that we have an ethical public service. What about it?
Re: An abuse of privilige.The DET can now diagnose mental ...
All government departments are doing this !!! The local courts have unqualified nurses labelling people. Probation & Parole have unqualified staff doing this!!! Centrelink are doing this on a regular basis - defenatly unqualified staff. Legals, Magistrates & even Judges are doing this !!! Even the police all think that they can do this now !!! And YES - this is totally unfair & discriminatory, but their is an answer to all of this - HIT THEM WITH CIVIL ACTION - PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE, where they have breached Crimes Act 1900, and purported to proceed with "False Representation". Pretending to be qualified Psychologists/Psychiatrists, when they are not. This is a criminal offence. And they may need to have their Mental Health Assessed during these proceedings, as their job may have gone to their heads !!! It may actually be effecting them, honestly, as many people who suffer Mental Illnesses, think that others are, when they are not. I would definately put in an application to have them assessed by order of the Supreme Court.