Sometimes the system fails and when it does, it’s catastrophic. Damaged by Cathy Glass is the story of one such failure and the little girl involved, Jodie. Cathy is a carer, the English equivalent of a foster parent, with twenty years of experience. Jodie comes to live with Cathy when she is just under eight-years-old and while there makes a series of startling revelations to Cathy. The first thirty pages or so are back story, but keep reading, it’s well worth your time.
Damaged is the true story of Jodie and the way the way the system fell apart, failing her in the most dramatic ways, keeping her in a dangerous home, where she suffered multiple injuries requiring emergency treatment, while they monitored the situation for nearly eight years. Her social services file was so extensive none of her social workers had ever read it in its entirety. What follows is a terribly sad scene from the book:
“ …suddenly I was awake, with my eyes open and my senses alert. I turned and looked at the clock: it was nearly 2:15 a.m. I listened. The house was silent. Yet something told me all was not well; a sixth sense from years of looking after children.
I eased my feet from the bed and felt for my slippers. The house was cold, as the heating had switched off for the night. I fumbled to get my arms into my robe, tied it loosely, and opened the bedroom door. Suddenly, I gasped in shock. Jodie was standing outside the door, her face covered in blood.
‘What is it? What have you done?’ I frantically searched for the source of the blood. ‘Where are you hurt? Tell me! Come on, quickly!’ I couldn’t find anything, but the blood was fresh.
In a trance-like state, she slowly raised her hands and showed me her palms. They were smeared with blood, but I still couldn’t find any sign of a cut. I pulled up her pajama sleeves, and then I saw it. She had a cut on her left forearm, about an inch long, which was lightly seeping blood…
No one had mentioned anything about self-harming, but I doubted this was the first time she’d done it. I looked closer, and saw there were other fine, pink scar lines running up both arms. How recent they were was difficult to tell.”
Cathy is the sixth carer to take Jodie in during a four-month period. She is aggressive, developmentally delayed and difficult to manage. After Cathy takes her in her aggression manifests toward Cathy and her three children, but Cathy stands by her, knowing she is Jodie’s last chance at avoiding institutionalization.
Damaged by Cathy Glass is published by HarperElement, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 77 – 85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, England W6 8JB, copyright 2006, ISBN 978-0-00-723634-3. Available online through Amazon, Barnes and Noble as well as other online book dealers, it may additionally be purchased local your local book store and several book clubs.
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