"The DGAIA makes me feel like the bad mother I know I'm not."
Families affected by the Generalitat's guardianship of their children are organizing to decide what steps to take.
BarcelonaThe day Antonia—a fictitious name like the other witnesses—finally signed the temporary protective custody of her teenage son, she ended up in an ambulance and treated in a hospital following a brutal panic attack. After months of internal debate and struggling with feelings of guilt, she agreed to abandon the boy so that the protection system of the General Directorate of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) could provide him with a residential placement through the fast-track system, aware that the child's behavioral problems and autism would make living together difficult.
The file must have remained in a drawer because she received no response from the agency. "They probably determined there was no risk because I'm taking care of him, and they focused on more urgent cases," she explains, insisting that she has even blamed herself for "abandoning" her son, a feeling so cruel that it's probably hard to understand if you haven't been through it yourself. This spring, the boy was admitted to a children's psychiatric hospital, and given the severity of his condition, when he recovered, he was transferred to the nursing home where he now lives. "The child is very stable, it's hard to say, but it's gone well for both of us because I've also gotten my life back," she says.
However, Antonia is left with a bitter taste for herself and for so many of her colleagues with children with intellectual disabilities or mental health problems, for whom the DGAIA suggests withdrawing guardianship of their children to pay for the extremely expensive and scarce places in nursing homes or specialized care. "You feel very alone because you're afraid they'll take your child away, even though you worry and care for them," she complains, wondering why part of the DGAIA's budget isn't allocated to opening places for children with severe disabilities or supporting their families.
For years, numerous families have denounced the unjustified withdrawal of custody by the DGAIA from single-parent families, families with children with disabilities or mothers with disabilities, foreign-born families, or impoverished families. They therefore criticize the agency's sexist, ableist, racist, and classist bias. According to data from the Ombudsman's Office, foreign children (not including unaccompanied minors) and children with disabilities are placed in centers more often than Spanish nationals and those without disabilities.
This is what they are trying to denounce to Broken Families for the DGAIA, an organization founded with the desire to unite forces. Thus, this Saturday, a group of families met at the Francesca Bonnemaison women's cultural center in Barcelona to decide on their next steps. Norma Falconi, one of the group's spokespersons, stated that they have been fighting unsuccessfully for years to have the children returned home: "We want to develop a strategy to make our voice heard and for us to be listened to." One of the attendees at the meeting was Ruslanda, a mother who has been without her son at home for almost seven years, and who laments that she has been labeled an "abuser" after a complaint from her son's paternal family. "The children don't understand why they are in a center," complains this Belarusian woman who has lived in Catalonia for more than 25 years.
Situations that go on forever
At Rita's home, they spend months of anguish for fear that the minor, whom they foster as extended family, would have to go with another part of the family to the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, despite the fact that the girl has no contact with her. She claims the situation makes them feel "helpless" and, above all, causes unnecessary stress for the little girl, knowing she may lose sight of her mother. The little girl is under the guardianship of the DGAIA (National Directorate of Family Planning), with a complicated family situation, but relatives complain that the mother's positive progress is ignored, despite the endorsements of external professionals. "The situation drags on, and the girl grows up with supervised and limited visits with her mother," Rita notes. In her 2022 report on the child protection system, the Ombudsman also highlights the imbalance between the investment that centers receive to care for minors, with an average of between €66,000 and €33,000 per child per year, and the aid received by extended and non-extended families.
Lola has been on the radar of the DGAIA services for almost four years, shortly after separating from an abusive husband who doesn't pay any child support for her now nine-year-old son. Since then, she has complained that the workers hound her rather than monitor her, summoning her to meetings where they talk about her past, her pregnancy, or her early years of marriage. "The DGAIA makes me feel like the bad mother I know I'm not," she laments. This woman emphasizes that she only needs financial help to support her family, and not oversight of her dedication and ability to be a mother.
