Why the System Feels Like It’s Failing — and What We Can Do Anyway




Why the System Feels Like It’s Failing — and What We Can Do Anyway

By Niki Gent

If you work in health, disability, education, child protection, justice, or community services, chances are you’ve said (or thought) the same sentence I’ve heard echoed across meeting rooms, car rides, and late-night debriefs:

“The system is broken.”

And you’re not wrong.
The people we work with are falling through cracks so wide they may as well be canyons. We see it every day — children placed in unsafe homes, First Nations families over-surveilled, underfunded services expected to do more with less, survivors retraumatised by red tape, people with disability waiting months for basic support.

It’s exhausting. Disheartening. Infuriating.
And it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of it.

But here’s what I’ve learned, through 20 years in the sector and hundreds of conversations with both frontline workers and system leaders:
Yes, the system feels like it’s failing.
And yes, we still have agency — even in the cracks.

🔍 The System Wasn’t Designed for Justice

Many of the systems we work in — child protection, justice, NDIS, housing — were not built with equity at their centre. They were built on risk management, control, economic efficiency, and colonial structures.

So when people feel like “the system doesn’t care,” it’s often because the system literally wasn’t designed to care. It was designed to manage.

This doesn’t excuse it — but it does explain the burnout so many of us feel trying to humanise inhumane systems.

⚖️ What We Can’t Control

We can’t always change the funding structure.
We can’t always get the outcome we know is right.
We can’t undo decades of systemic discrimination in one case meeting.

These limitations are real. And pretending otherwise only adds to our despair.

But what we can do is even more powerful — because it’s human.

🛠️ What We Can Do Anyway

1. Advocate, even if it doesn’t change the outcome
Every time you say, “This isn’t okay,” you plant a seed. You create a record. You remind those in power that someone is watching.

2. Validate the lived experience
When systems fail people, the biggest harm is often not being believed. Your validation — “You shouldn’t have been treated like that” — is not small. It’s life-affirming.

3. Create safety in small spaces
We may not control the system, but we do control our rooms, our conversations, our tone, our choices. Trauma-informed practice is radical because it humanises in dehumanising systems.

4. Support each other
The system isolates us. It pits services against each other for funding. It overwhelms us with admin. Fight back by building connection — debrief, laugh, cry, celebrate tiny wins.

5. Document everything
It protects your clients. It protects you. And when enough of us document, patterns emerge — patterns that can’t be ignored.

6. Stay in the work — with boundaries
Leaving the work is valid. But if you stay, do it in a way that protects your spirit. That means saying no, asking for support, pushing back against injustice, and making space to rest.

🧭 The System May Not Be Just — But We Can Be

I often think of the people who come through our doors not because they trust the system, but because they trust us. That is an honour. And a responsibility.

So even when you’re knee-deep in policies that make no sense…
Even when your advocacy gets denied…
Even when you feel like a small voice in a noisy machine…

Remember: you are someone’s safe space.
You are the reason a person felt seen, heard, supported — even if the outcome didn’t change.

That’s not failure. That’s radical care.


About the Author,

Niki has worked in Child Protection, Family Law, Juvenile Justice and NDIS for over 20 years.  Having worked extensively with families, government departments, not for profits and privately owned large and small businesses, Niki understands the needs of families, the pressures of compliance, quality and sustainability, and the need to work smart, be resilient, and know who we work for and who we work with.

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