'Does everyone need to know everything? It's like your life is open wide..'

Kids' stigma worries if personal life details leak

- BY LYNNE KELLEHER

CHILDREN in care speak of the fear of stigma, loss of privacy, and being “out of the loop” in the child protection system, a new Trinity College study reports.

"I just don't get the school knowing every bit."

This was the worried reflection of a 12-year-old boy called Adam, after social workers arrived unexpectedly at his school.

His experience is shared in the new study, which draws on the voices of 20 children who have engaged with Ireland's child protection and welfare services.

In interviews, they describe the fear of being stigmatised or “losing face” if sensitive details of their young lives were shared at school or in the wider community.

Adam told the researchers that he did not know why a meeting with social workers was taking place at school.

Describing the discomfort of returning to class afterwards, and being asked where he had been, he said: “Yeah, it was a bit awful really.”

A 16-year-old girl Ciara, recalled her distress when personal details of her case were discussed during a formal meeting that included professionals and her school principal.

She remembers thinking: “Everything that happened [in her family], I was like, 'Oh God this is like no.”