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advanced risk assessment
Dec. 5th, 2006 04:53 pmTraining today was mercifully swift. The Howard Johnson is cheap, and only provided water. Alas no coffee to help me get through the morning. At least I had a long lunch, and got out early. We did some evaluations of casework that I never actually get to participate in, such as safety plans and monitor the progress of a family. As part of that we reviewed the Kayla case from Florida, and the more recent Texas case where a mentally ill mother cut off the arms of her baby after religious psychotic delusions. It was sad stuff, especially in the Florida case. There were so many places where missed communication between people let the child suffer. There were so many times where people just took others at their word, and didn't look past the surface explanation.
Everybody lies.
This line of work doesn't allow you the luxury of believing people. There are questions to be asked, things to be evaluated, things to see and touch and hear. There are so many things that need doing. In a world where we pay our caseworkers salaries that are just above poverty level, place extremely demanding loads on those workers, and don't give workers the resources or power they need - people will die. That's just how it happens. I looked all all the young people in the room, and thought about them having to venture into dangerous situations on a daily basis. Of all the people in that class, I had the third longest tenure with DFPS. Turnover rate in the agency on the whole is down but one in five people leaves my office each year.
The transfer of our child services to private agencies has been put on hold indefinately due to some serious concerns. I wonder how we didn't learn anything from situations like what happened in Florida. Private agencies answer to one thing - their profits. Turning over the welfare of the most fragile and damaged children we have to agencies that are for-profit seems like the most absurd, inane step I can imagine. You can't pay people to care. They either do, or they don't. Adding money into that equation is twisted. (I have similar trepidations about a for-profit medical industry, but that's another story.) We currently contract with a number of private child placing agencies to handle foster care, but the care itself is under our direct supervision. Licenses come through us. Services, monitoring, meetings to determine the level of care - all those things are under our jurisdiction. It horrifies me to think that we would sell all that out to the contract with the lowest bid.
We all knew I was a cynic before I started this job. But I think it's bruising that deep down idealist core that I've always had. The part of me that believes people are capable of being good, or doing the right thing. I'd love to think the best of people, and be able to trust their words to be truth. But in this place, you can't. You can't ever assume that anyone will do the right thing. It's so frustrating, and it makes me so angry. I want to grab people by the shoulders and shake them, shout at them. You can be better than this, you can be a decent human being. If only it were that easy to fix them all.
Everybody lies.
This line of work doesn't allow you the luxury of believing people. There are questions to be asked, things to be evaluated, things to see and touch and hear. There are so many things that need doing. In a world where we pay our caseworkers salaries that are just above poverty level, place extremely demanding loads on those workers, and don't give workers the resources or power they need - people will die. That's just how it happens. I looked all all the young people in the room, and thought about them having to venture into dangerous situations on a daily basis. Of all the people in that class, I had the third longest tenure with DFPS. Turnover rate in the agency on the whole is down but one in five people leaves my office each year.
The transfer of our child services to private agencies has been put on hold indefinately due to some serious concerns. I wonder how we didn't learn anything from situations like what happened in Florida. Private agencies answer to one thing - their profits. Turning over the welfare of the most fragile and damaged children we have to agencies that are for-profit seems like the most absurd, inane step I can imagine. You can't pay people to care. They either do, or they don't. Adding money into that equation is twisted. (I have similar trepidations about a for-profit medical industry, but that's another story.) We currently contract with a number of private child placing agencies to handle foster care, but the care itself is under our direct supervision. Licenses come through us. Services, monitoring, meetings to determine the level of care - all those things are under our jurisdiction. It horrifies me to think that we would sell all that out to the contract with the lowest bid.
We all knew I was a cynic before I started this job. But I think it's bruising that deep down idealist core that I've always had. The part of me that believes people are capable of being good, or doing the right thing. I'd love to think the best of people, and be able to trust their words to be truth. But in this place, you can't. You can't ever assume that anyone will do the right thing. It's so frustrating, and it makes me so angry. I want to grab people by the shoulders and shake them, shout at them. You can be better than this, you can be a decent human being. If only it were that easy to fix them all.