The Men’s Employment Network Support (MENS) on Thursday expressed concerns that the judicial system is complicating the challenges fathers face in maintaining relationships with their children.
Fabian Sargeant, MENS founder and president, suggested the courts are harming men’s mental health and overall well-being.
Sargeant, a social worker, stressed the difficulties men encounter in accessing their children, which he blamed on legal battles and systemic challenges.
“These men are so stressed out and their mental health capacity has dwindled,” he said. “They aren’t productive at work, they aren’t functional on a day-to-day basis and they aren’t coping well. A lot of these things are leading to things like substance abuse, and unhealthy practices, things that we wouldn’t want to encourage.
“It is an area that we need to focus on going forward. While we develop our boys, we also need to look at the deficits within the judicial system to see where we can advocate, and push for maybe, a different approach to the family law and see how men can get access to their children.”
He observed a decline in men’s mental health and functionality due to these obstacles, noting instances where court orders regarding visitation rights were not upheld by the mothers, leaving men frustrated.
“Some of these men go to court and are given orders. Part of the order says they’re supposed to see the children during the weekend or whatever, but when they do go to access it is always an excuse or problem. In most of the situations that we see; men end up on the negative side. An order is broken. These men are expected to see their children by the court. It [has been] ordered by the court . . . this is supposed to happen but yet they experience issues where a lot of mothers are breaking the orders and nothing is being done.”
Calling for increased legal awareness among men, Sargeant underscored the importance of education and proper representation in court. He pointed out disparities in legal knowledge between genders and the financial burden men face in seeking legal assistance.
“For some reason, the women tend to know the law, they do their research. they speak to their legal representatives. Men tend to just go to court without representation in many instances, not all because they have men who do seek legal representation, but the challenge is legal representation. These men have to look for money . . . and in these hard times, it is a very costly venture when a man has to pay child support and still to see that child, has to pay a lawyer so that he can see that child. It is a continuous process and nothing is done to the mother who flouts the law.
“I guess it is a very touchy topic to say that the law favours women because it all boils down to the enforcement. It boils down to what happens in that courtroom. It boils down to the position on both ends and the magistrate that that man goes before. So it’s not necessarily that the laws favour women, it is that society generally favours women and there’s this cultural thing where we men are not seen in the same light. Men are seen as just providers, and we are treated in that way. People do not understand that there is a lot more to fatherhood than just providing a few dollars. There are psychological and emotional sides to fatherhood that we seldom pay attention to.”
Proposing increased mediation and educational sessions, Sargeant emphasized the importance of prioritising children’s interests in strained parental relationships. He urged for a shift in societal perspectives on fatherhood and emphasised the need for emotional support and understanding in parenting, particularly in challenging circumstances.
“When relationships go sour, people do not know how to cope well,” he said. “They do not understand that if a child is involved they do not understand why we need to act in the best interest of this child. So we need to have more mediation going on. We need to have a lot more sessions that are targeted towards getting people to understand that it is not really about the mother or the father. It is the children that will be impacted or affected.
“That is really where the education needs to go. We talk about parenting and how we approach parenting. How do we approach parenting in a visiting relationship or a broken relationship for that matter or a relationship where emotions are still raging, there is a lot of hurt between the two individuals but yet there is still a child and that child will suffer from the hurt that is being experienced between the mother and father.”
(RG)
