Our social work
colleagues in Vermont experienced a heartbreaking tragedy this weekend with the
shooting death of a Department of Children and Families social worker. With
very preliminary information, we know that the social worker was shot outside
the DCF office, allegedly by a DCF client who lost custody of her child(ren).
The Child Welfare field
has always been a challenging one. Social Workers and other child welfare
staff are expected to deal with complex social, environmental, psychological,
and mental health issues that affect society’s vulnerable families. These
multifarious problems can be short-lived or chronic, and it is up to the child
welfare community to deal with them, address them, solve them. With this
awesome responsibility, society must do its utmost to give child welfare the
support, resources and mobilized attention that the job demands.
For this reason,
NASW continually supports manageable caseloads, professional training for
staff, and every effort to fully fund and staff child welfare agencies
with the necessary resources.
Please see the
statement from our colleague in Vermont below:
NASW-VT
STATEMENT
The Vermont Chapter of the National Association for Social
Workers (NASW-VT) expresses its heartbreak and sympathies after Friday night's
fatal shooting of a Department for Children and Families (DCF) employee.
Employees of the Department for Children and Families do
immensely difficult work with children and families experiencing complicated
and often extreme hardship. Every day, these workers do their best to navigate
sometimes-impossible challenges in an environment of scarce resources. This
work helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of communities throughout
Vermont.
While we know that incidents such as these have been known
to occur to child protection workers across the country, it is impossible to
prepare for or fathom the devastation that a crime such as this causes. NASW-VT
expresses our deepest sympathies to the family of the victim of this crime. We
stand in proud solidarity with child protection workers across Vermont and
across our country in the wake of this unspeakable violence.
Eilis O’Herlihy, LICSW
Executive Director, NASW-VT
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