So much is being written about what is going on at the Department of Children and
Families and there is so much finger pointing that the Daily News should
really take on a new name - How
about the Daily Target?
It is doubtless that a series
of tragic events has occurred over the past months:
·
Three
children died;
·
The
agency charged with protecting
these children and strengthening their families did not prevent the deaths;
·
The workers assigned the job of
protecting and strengthening failed…the agency failed.
All
this was reported from various sources and we all feel so helpless – we being the workers
assigned to the cases, the managers assigned to support the workers, the
professionals associated with the child welfare agency (i.e. the police, school systems,
community agencies contracted with DCF to provide services). The list goes on. And the NASW, the association representing the social work profession is also in the mix, for the term
‘social worker’ applies to us.
Beyond all the ‘knee jerk’ responses about which I have previously written, I
have offered the following to the press:
1.
That
the media catch
the child welfare community doing something right, rather than looking for what
is wrong. What is right is…
a.
The
thousands of children and
families that have benefitted from short and long-term supports offered by DCF and its contracted agencies;
b.
The
thousands of kids that say that DCF saved them; AND
c.
The
thousands of foster families who not only provided valuable assistance to the biological
families in need of the
positive modeling foster parents supply and the thousands of social workers, including myself as a former DCG worker, who believed
in parents intentions to do the right thing, but who just did not know how to do it.
2.
That the DCF training unit be adequately funded
to provide the essential professional training needed for individuals going into the
field. It is short-sighted and irresponsible to hire 200 new workers
without giving them the tools, the knowledge and the supervised training
required to understand and
intervene appropriately in the complicated situations into which they thrust.
3.
That the law, regulations and practice require
that only individuals with social work degrees from accredited BSW and MSW
Schools of Social Work be hired to work with some of the most complex and
compromised family and individual cases to which DCF is charged. There is a place for other professionals to do important
case management, coordination
and related work but the demanding role of a social worker in DCF requires
people who have had several years of supervised experience and course work before they
take on the serious work within
the child welfare field.
