Importance of Sanctuary

[blueplain]

First of all what is Sanctuary

sanctuary
1. Refuge or safety from pursuit, persecution, or other danger.

Sanctuary, as defined above, is an important aspect of our lives because our home is our Sanctuary. Our home creates a physical and mental barrier to that of the outside. A place we can create our own safe world within a protective buble. A place where we can form our own personal societies away from the pressure of society. There are huge mental health benefits that are attributed to these positive aspects of Sanctuary.
As such any violation of our Sancutary has a fundemental effect on our mental state. When social workers come through our door, our sanctuary is violated. What was once a place of safety for us, becomes a place of persecution. Within moments, our safe comfortable Sanctuary turns into what can litteraly be defined as a crime scene. Our possessions, enviroment and our own selves become evidence within an evaluation of our parental skills. This fundemental shift from a place of safety into a place of persecution can have a monumnetal effect on your mental state.
Your once protected bubble is popped and you then ask yourself, where now can I feel safe, away from the prosecution, away from the prospect that there is a danger that your family may be irreversibly destroyed? There is no such thing as an out of limits room which you can designate in your home as a place of safety, as social workers need full disscloser and access to your home. So where can we find sanctuary?
Some people can find santuary with family members or friends. In many cases your family and friends homes are safe from Intervention and assessment. If this is the case for you, then designating certain days and using your family and friends homes as a refuge from intervention can really help. That break from the constant fear really can make a big improvement to your mental wellbeing.
What about thoese that are isolated and/or thoese that have friends/family being assessed within the process of intervention? Where can they find sanctuary? Remember, sanctuary is anywhere you feel safe from prosecution. No place can feel as secure as your home once did but there are areas that can be like a sanctuary to you. Perhaps a walk in the woods for one day of the week? On cold days in the middle of winter you could go for a drive in the countryside. There is even the prospect of regaining some santuary in your own home by informing a social worker, as an example "I am not available on a thursday as this is the day I go shopping, to the laundrets and visit family.
Whatever the case may be it is important that you make provisions to provide yourself and your family a form of sanctuary from the constant pressure and fear of intervention.

[charmed1]

Dear blueplain. First of all happy new year. Secondly I have to start by saying you've hit the nail on the head.

I was a nervous wreck before my kids were removed and especially between their failed attempt to removal to the four months later when they finally succeeded. The social worker telling the judge they've (parents) got worse not better between hearings.

Why? because I was so afraid. I stood looking out the window to see if she was coming up the road. Telling the kids to behave in case she was outside listening. Making sure the house was show home standard instead of playing with my kids and enjoying life.

So yes my home wasn't a sanctuary at all. More like a fishbowl come prison. If I went to the Surestart centre I was watched and reported on. When I took my son to nursery I was reported on. Constantly paranoid in case I did something they could report me about. I stayed in way more than I should. Became agoraphobic and with two young children that's not healthy.

Thanks again blueplain for your post.