Granddaughter alienation

Hi,

Our son had a daugther with his partner while they both had drug abuse issues. They separated and the maternal grandparents took the child. They stopped contact so we went to court and were granted weekly contact. Our son had a loving relationship with his daughter for 5 years but unfortunately for part of that time his drug abuse spiralled out of control and he got himself into trouble, ending up in prison. He underwent very successful rehabiliation while on bail and received an unusually short prison sentence. The maternal grandparent refused prison visits so the child has not seen her father for 2 years, she is now 7.

The maternal grandmother has constantly berated our son even in the presence of the child. Now that he is due to come home they are demanding a period of supervised contact and also a pysch test. Our son made one bad mistake but is not a bad person, he has never hurt anybody only himself and loved ones emotionally and just wants to rebuild his life and his relationship with his daughter. The child was once told that her daddy had beaten up mummy and wrecked her house, which is totally untrue.

We fear PAS. We are happy to comply with a reasonable process to resume contact, even though the child has spoken with her father on the phone every week he has been away. We just believe they will keep putting up obstacles. They are claiming the child has ADHD and may be confused and upset at her father returning. They were not concerned at her confusion when he went away. The child used to ask her daddy to describe the place he was staying at, we told her he was working in the country painting houses. It has been heartbreaking watching the relationship wane. The other party seem oblivious to the impact on the child's development, they cannot move on from the events of 7 years ago, when our son was certainly abusive and horrible. He has made amends, has written to apologise and is completely transformed. He is a musicion and leads the worship in the prison church services.

The tragedy in all this is that the small army of medical people, including a psychiatyrist and a pyschologist, who the other party have got to say the child is mentally unwell do not seem to care about the emotional abuse the child is suffering at the hands if a bitter person who displays disturbing behaviours. I am a post graduate pyschology student and believe she has obsessive compulsive tendencies and is certainly delusional. Her extremely oppressive parenting and pessimistic attitude to life have contributed to the child's anxiety and impulsive behaviour. Nobody seems to be looking at the obvious.

Anyway, that's a bit of a vent, never set out that way, it just flowed. I am a pragmatic person and have observed behaviour that supports my view that the maternal grandparent has mental health issues. The most critical concern is that I believe now that our son is due home the alienation will increase.

Is there a way we can work on proving PAS? Are there any psychologists in SA that are skilled in PAS assessment?

Thanks for caring.

T