What’s Wrong with Child Welfare?

Despite the theories on internet chat boards that we chose this profession because we hate children and families and want to spend our lives destroying them for shitty pay (albeit, I can understand from whence this speculation arises), I work for the agency because I care about kids. As a result, my decisions with regards to kids are child-welfare-driven (i.e. the welfare of the children takes precedence) rather than CYA-driven. This is not the typical “CYA” that is inspired by self-preservation and that we all do, though we shouldn’t be proud of it, to some extent. The type of CYA to which I refer is not borne of self-efficiency and diligence, rather this pervasive CYA is much more insidious.  That is cover your agency at all costs and the lives if children and families are but incidental considerations.

I have been in CW only 10 years, yet I have always been at odds with it. As vocations go, it’s a whole different animal. I have had the same argument with every supervisor(and most of my co-workers) in every division and in two different states. The irony is that I know I’m right and they know they’re right. The difference is that I base my opinion on the research of the experts. I am not arrogant enough to simply assume that I know what’s right for children and families. I consult the “experts.”

What is new, for me, is the realization “why?” Why have I always felt like a fish-out-of-water in Child Welfare? Why do I have friends that couldn’t remain in Child Welfare? Why am I in constant vocational turmoil and threat of termination when the average American and congressional subcommittees and child protection experts agree with me consistently and emphatically, It has, to my chagrin, finally become evident that the majority of the American public, those that agree vehemently with me (and Wayne Holder, etc.) cannot tolerate working in Child Welfare for any length of time.  So, the status-quo continues, and always will.  Children and families be damned.

from WASTED by Patrick T. Murphy

 

It’s probably important to remember when you read these quotes that Mr. Murphy was an immediate response worker in New York City…where they really don’t have time to micro-manage marginal families…

“In truth, public Child Welfare agencies will never be satisfactory.  We give them children who’s spirits have been crushed by oafish parents and expect the agency to put the kids’ psyches back together.”

“The Child Welfare system has failed children because it refuses to distinguish between parents who are ill-equipped to raise there kids adequately without help, and parents who are too immature or thuggish to raise children even with help.  To the system, all parents are victims, irrespective of their crimes or potential for reform.  And, the parent, not the child, is the client.”

“Guilt and responsibility, pillars of the criminal justice system, are alien concepts in the juvenile justice arena…the parent’s abusive acts become irrelevant once the juvenile court determines that the child has been abused.  Instead, the courts and the child welfare bureaucracy are responsible for providing services to the parent(s).”

“In the present system, the parent’s victim status becomes more important than the child’s neglect.”

“Self-described child advocates have sloganized ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ in order to relieve bad parents of blame for abusing their children or of the responsibility for raising them as adequately as their resources permit.  Indeed ‘it takes a village’ has become an incantation to ward off those who dare to suggest that with parenthood comes individual responsibility.  The village can indeed provide the family with a friendly environment, but only a parent can raise a child.”

“In juvenile court, parents who have abused their children are frequently sent to parenting classes.  I have always thought this was a waste.  The time to teach people to parent is when they themselves are children.  Classes ought to be held regularly for all children at the grammar school and high school levels, concentrating on the responsibilities of parenthood.”

“Too many child welfare types can’t bring themselves to admit that there are cowards and bullies who are good at having babies but incapable of nurturing their children, with or without multiservice centers.  They abuse their kids and ultimately lose them because down deep they never wanted them.”

“We force children to stay with people whose only connection to parenthood is a roll in the hay nine months before the child is born.”

…true enough, but Mr. Murphy need remember we ‘force’ children to stay with their parents because we have no where better to put them!  The state makes an even lousier parent!

Two-Headed Dragon

“Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known”
-President Barrack Obama 1/25/09

Powerful (sounding) words that, in reality, amount to nothing more than lip-service and political/bureaucratic rhetoric.  Of course, when our current president uttered these words at his inauguration, he never said they would be without sacrifice.

Now I know, first hand, that my union is not interested in protecting the Constitutional rights of individual workers. Rather, like government itself, the sole purpose of contemporary unions is to grow, in wealth and power.

Of course, why would a worker in opposition to the state’s abuse of power, expect his rights to be protected when those same rights, among Child Welfare clientele, are violated on a daily basis?

In ten years as a Child Protective Services caseworker, it had already become evident to me how, for 35 years, CPS has been able to run unopposed from within despite an egregiously un-American mode of operation: Simply get rid of those insiders who raise concerns about the status-quo.  And, apparently with Union help.

State investigates response to Ore. child abuse

State investigates response to Ore. child abuse

GUEST VIEWPOINT: Oregon rips apart too many families | One reason for the high rate of abuse in the foster care system is the high number of kids torn from their homes

GUEST VIEWPOINT: Oregon rips apart too many families | One reason for the high rate of abuse in the foster care system is the high number of kids torn from their homes

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Agency!

This irony has only recently occurred to me...we in CPS work extensively with victims as well as perpetrators of domestic violence...I've wondered about the motivations of my colleagues at the "front end" of the agency (investigators, mostly women), and the frightening truth is...they possess the same power-and-control issues as do the perpetrators of DV...SCARY!...

Kids before Career

Few are surprised to hear a CPS-worker say “Child Protective Services is a nasty business!”  But most would be surprised by the reasons why.  The reason that CPS is a grueling, depressing and downright vile place to work has nothing to do with atrocities committed upon children.  Thankfully, these are much more rare than most think.  The primary reason CPS is so loathsome (for most) is the reality that neither parents’ rights nor what’s actually best for children are ever considered.
Once in a (great) while, someone remains in CPS that actually cares more about kids than career advancement.  Most of us, those who share the majority societal views of justice and family sanctity, quit early on.  However, some of us gluttons-for-punishment, or those who stay on for any of myriad reasons (none of which is job-satisfaction, of course) can either “go-along-to-get-along” or be outspoken about ideals that most Americans adore and, as a result, become pariahs.
Those of us that stay on, (us pariahs) quickly develop glass ceilings and therefore never attain positions where we might initiate change that would actually help children.  Perhaps not becoming a “bureaucrat” is reward enough for this limited or truncated career path, however, as I frequently and in all seriousness utter to my superiors: “Sucks for the kids!”
That said; if those of us with more mainstream-American political proclivities always precipitously quit how might a government agency that does more harm than good ever change?  If the public never hears the truth about CPS, how might it be expunged?  Who will stop this monolith?
To oversimplify the equation (albeit, not by much) workers can either focus (often with the benefit of ignorance or cowardice) on being a “company-man” OR (with the benefit of copious self-study and research) focus on actually helping kids and families.  To chose the latter and stay, fight the good fight, is to live under constant threat of termination and family upheaval.  But hey, courage is doing what’s right even when it hurts, right?
Of course, a big-picture perspective, and outside self-study, is required to inform oneself towards effectively helping kids.  The Child Welfare agency will never teach its minions the truth about removal usually being the worst thing these kids experience.  There is too much money to be had from adoption, that most lucrative end-result for removed children.  That most glorified culmination that corral’s the greatest possible federal subsidies.
Further, as Nancy Schaefer dared to utter prior to her execution: in order to maintain the (federal) funding-flow the agency needs fresh “merchandise.”
“Fresh merchandise” (i.e. removed children) is not acquired by CPS investigators that attempt to maintain families.  It is only the overzealous, myopic and, of course blessedly ignorant and/or cowardly, CPS workers that believe they’re doing the child a favor by removing them from their non-abusive parents…(popularly known for years as “erring on the side of the child”)…that maintain a steady influx of “merchandise.”
These are your valuable (monetarily speaking) CPS caseworkers that the agency prizes so highly.  This MO is what makes one a “company-man” (or, more likely, woman).  This is what prevents a worker from acquiring a glass-ceiling and/or ending one’s career.  If you chose not to prioritize the money over the kids…well…you’re done.
Who knew “Child Protective Services” was not a good place to work for those who hoped only to devote their careers to children.
So…from one who has sacrificed his/her career…and yet (so far) continues to fight the good fight from within CPS, I can tell you, every day could be my last.  But, in the meantime, I am gratified by helping children one “starfish” at a time.