Letter to the editor: Aug. 6

Overwhelmed but still trying In a time where more awareness is being brought to mental illness, help is only supposed to be a phone call away. Then why is it that when for almost nine months as a kinship caregiver, you can call children's protective services, begging for help with behavioral and emotional issues with children, yet your calls, texts or emails go unanswered? Why does it take them five months to finally get proper paperwork in, so you can get the children started in counseling? Why are promises made by CPS and never kept? Our children are the future, we are here to protect, nurture and instill positive strong qualities and morals in them so they may grow and be confident, caring and successful young adults. The CPS system in Hancock County is definitely not set up to allow kinship caregivers to be able to do this. So many people trying to do what is right and best for the children, but when nothing seems to be working, behaviors are getting worse, meltdowns are happening more often, you know what the cause is, but because it is so one-sided, and blinders are on, "nothing can be done" is the answer you get almost all the time, or you are belittled because you rattle some cages trying to get help for the children that are definitely in crisis mode. Then, when you continue to try to get help, literally fearful for the escalated mental instability, their answer is "you are overwhelmed," or "you need to take care of you." Yes, I am overwhelmed, but it's only because nobody is listening. We all know the system is overflowing with children in dire need of help, but what is being done is only putting a Band-Aid on a situation. Please stop and listen to what the caregivers are trying to tell you, after all we are the ones you entrusted the children with. Why can't you help us help them? The system is broken, so let's work together and find a way to fix it. Our children, the future, deserve that. Yonnie Marziaz Rossford