Author Guest Post with Jo Cooling: Child Protection Behind Closed Doors

In the beginning, a tragic event started me on my journey to a destination and my love for helping children of all ages and their families.

Welcome to the December 30th on the blog tour for Child Protection Behind Closed Doors by Jo Cooling with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

Research Carried Out for Child Protection Behind Closed Doors

When I was working with adolescents it was approximately 2002, so when I was writing my book I decided to jump online and research the current concerns young people now face regarding chroming. Let me tell you, I was shocked. I thought it was bad when I was a worker, however, the information I encountered today reveals is has now become a Crisis.

Young people don’t realize that prolonged use of paint or any inhalants can lead to significant health problems, including anaemia, weight loss, muscle tremors, irritability, memory problems, cognitive difficulties, and chemical poisoning. This can result in brain, liver, and kidney damage, and ultimately, death.

Inhalant use is associated with various causes of death, including asphyxiation from prolonged oxygen deprivation, choking on vomit, coma caused by brain damage, convulsions and seizures, and suffocation from plastic bags or other objects used during inhalation. This is also referred to as ‘sudden sniffing death syndrome.’

It is evident that since stores have banned young people under the age of eighteen from purchasing paint spray cans, they are now getting high from deodorant sprays and other easily accessible aerosol cans, including almost any household cleaning agents. This is almost impossible to police. Could you imagine needing to show identification to purchase a can of deodorant or fly spray?

While researching this topic, I also came across little cylinders of nitrous oxide. They are so small that they can easily be concealed anywhere. When I was at Child Protection and high-risk young people were chroming, at least with paint spray cans, we could hear them and confiscate them. You can’t hear or confiscate deodorant.

What really stood out to me is the impact that social media is having on young people and the choices they make. I am not saying that social media is to blame for every bad decision a young person makes. However, social media has definitely played a significant part in the issues that plague the young people of today.

The impact that TikTok and other social media platforms have on the spiralling epidemic of young people’s addiction to chroming and other substances is so large that there may need to be a government inquiry and serious consideration of banning TikTok.

One such impact of social media on the mental health of young people is the term FOMO (fear of missing out). This craze has become an epidemic, even if young people really don’t want to do a challenge or try a drug, the fear of being left out of a group or ostracized by the group is so high, they join in, pushing aside any fear of how dangerous the consequences maybe.

Social media has a place and is not all bad, but where do you draw the line? When a platform is so big yet so damaging, how do you protect young people from themselves?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how many programs you offer, how many times you talk to young people about the dangers, or how much information you provide them. Unless they want to make a change in their lives, they will continue to place themselves at risk and use inhalants.

The problem with inhalant intoxication, compared to other drugs, is that there is no neutralizing substance to reverse the effects, like with heroin or amphetamines. This means some long-term damage or overdose caused by inhalants is irreversible. I had one client, Samuel, who had one side of his face permanently drooped from long-term inhalant abuse.

In 2024, diagnosing inhalant abuse is more difficult because back when I was a worker, we had the tell-tale signs of coloured paint on clothes, hands, and face, and paint had a strong smell. Unfortunately, today’s inhalants are mostly colourless and sometimes odourless; therefore, diagnosis relies more on a high index of suspicion, as there is no laboratory test to confirm solvent abuse as with other drugs.

Addiction is a journey with no destination; recovery is a journey with unlimited potential.

I had to do some research while I was a worker, as though my life depended on it.

My team leader and I attended a meeting at the secure welfare complex in Melbourne, Australia to decide the appropriate outcome for a young person named Paul, who had been absconding from his allocated placement.

I remember numerous family members of Pacific Islander descent attending the meeting and I definitely cannot forget his mother. The meeting became very heated at one point, and the mother started speaking in her own language. The person conducting the meeting requested that she speak in English. After the meeting was finished, my team leader and I were informed that the mother had placed a curse on us. We did not think anything of it, as neither one of us believed in that sort of thing.

Approximately one week later, I spoke with my team leader, and he asked me whether any strange things had happened over the last week. I can’t remember the exact things. However, I recall that both of us were shaken by the bad luck we experienced after the curse had been placed on us. My team leader informed me that a person in Child Protection was of the same nationality as the mother who had placed the curse.

That afternoon, I spoke to my work colleague and informed him about the curse placed on me and my team leader and the bad luck that we had both been experiencing. The work colleague stated, “For the curse to be lifted, we would need to find the elder of the particular tribe the family belong to and ask them to lift the curse.”

I went back to my team leader and told him what the work colleague had told me. I said to him, “Where Fu#@ed.”

Obviously, I did not die from the experience. I don’t know about bad luck but every time something goes wrong, it does still cross my mind.

A parent’s ability to care for a child is sometimes
misguided in Their belief that their child is perfect
but their love for their child never waivers.

About the Book

Child Protection Behind Closed Doors
by Jo Cooling

Published 24 July 2024
Tellwell Talent

Genre: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 189
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

In the beginning, a tragic event started me on my journey to a destination and my love for helping children of all ages and their families.

However, what I was not prepared for was that the people who assisted me and paved the way for my advancement in my chosen career in Child Protection were the same people who tried to bring me down.

This book will give you insight into what it is like to work in Child Protection. It will show you the difficulties and sometimes dangers workers face on a daily basis. Furthermore, the novel will also highlight the satisfaction you get when you can assist a child and their family through a traumatic event.

My career at Child Protection spanned nearly a decade, and during that time, I was bullied by management. I observed management bully other workers; I was also aware of workers consuming drugs, both outside work hours and during work hours.

This novel is a behind-the-scenes look at what really happens at Child Protection when the public is not watching or listening.

Child Protection is not an easy career path, but it can be a good job if you like long hours, have a thick skin, keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, and abide by everything that management wants you to do, even when you know it is wrong or unfair.

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About the Author

The life of Jo Cooling is like living in a theme park: one minute, it’s like riding a roller coaster, baking cupcakes, cookies, and slices. With a kitchen covered with chocolate, flour, and cooking utensils. Also trying to develop new tastes and ideas for her growing baking business.

Sometimes, she feels like she travels through life in a Dodge ’em car. All the while, she works to complete two novels while caring for two Cavoodles, who believe their mother was placed on this earth purely to play with them 24 hours a day.

But no matter how out of control her life can be at times, eventually, she ends up sailing around on the Walt Disney teacup ride on top of the world. However, when she relaxes, the Cavoodles see this as an opportunity to snuggle on Mum’s lap.

Jo’s work career has been just as colorful as her current life. She has worked in horse and car racing, sold lingerie, designed websites, been a Personal Assistant, and worked as a Law Clerk.

Jo looks at life like a box of chocolates: each day unwraps a new layer, revealing unexpected flavors and textures.

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Giveaway Alert!

The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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