Is it abuse or bad parenting?

On 17 Apr 2004 19:08:58 GMT, (Fern5827) wrote:

....and I replied with crossposts just for comic relief...........


100 intake specialists at a time staff the intake lines?

FACT CHECKER, PLEASE.

Here he is, The Mighty Fact Checker at your service, dear Dumbcane
(Deffenbachia), at your service....R R R R R R

Way, way over staffed.

R R R R....actually when I saw it was a statewide hotline it occurred
to me this was a gross under reportage. It HAS to be more than that.

Hotlines are staffed 24/7. That means a minimum of three shifts. And
usually for something so critical there would be some overlap...so
it's probably four shifts total...but we'll go for three as we explore
this for you...fact checking, you know. I'm so much at your
service...you and my Peas and Carrot plants. .

http://www.news8austin.com/content/n...9905&SecID=383

The article above will tell you the real story...I KNOW you believe in
the media to be accurate.

In fact it's more like 214 hotline PS workers in Texas.

That would be 72 .. (I don't slice up and divide a person, nor do I
delete persons, so I have to go to the next highest number) per shift.
Let's see how many calls come in annually for 72 people to handle per
shift, shall we?

My guess is they put more screeners on during the daytime and fewer at
night and on holidays. Folks tend to do their abuse and neglect more
hidden during a holiday when the kiddies aren't in school, in public,
in day care, and not seeing doctors...though the police responses
might be up a tad

Ah, same article:

53,000 came in one month, September. Let's take the entire 214 and
see how many calls per worker, many of which take up to half an hour
to an hour to process, there are; 247 per worker per month.

Let's see what that works out to, just for September (which I can
assure you is NOT the hottest month for child abuse allegation
calls....December is).

A worker, without overtime (and the article says they commonly do 50
to 60 hours) would be putting in about 168 hours so that comes out to
about 1.5 calls per hour....why those lazy suckers.

I'll bet they are taking the union contract breaks and even stopping
for lunch.

Not to mention that the state does NOT want to be short of workers
when calls are coming in (something the article points up as a
problem).

So I guess each caller gets about 40 minutes. Hell that should be more
than enough time. Besides it's just an average. We could move more
from night shift when it's slow to the day shift. And we KNOW that no
call EVER takes more than 40 minutes.....R R R ... yes we do.

I say fire half of them and work those remaining suckers into the
ground. That'll improve services...and cut their pay too...and stop
the IV-E funding entirely.

Take some money away, then the reports will become less...that's for
sure.

Pay no attention to the complaints of the folks in this article that
worry about slow response and being on hold for ....by golly, about 40
minutes or so.........what a strange coincidence.

When are you going to learn not to put out such challenges, Peanut?

How many times have I doused you with your own Liquid Fertilizer when
you've done this again and again? You really are one of the truly
stupid ones.

Best wished,

Kane


Wex sent in:

Subject: Is it abuse or bad parenting?
From: wexwimpy
Date: 4/17/2004 1:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

Is it abuse or bad parenting?

By LIZ STEVENS

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER


The caller spoke calmly, but her request was urgent.

A 5-month-old baby girl was in danger.

On the other end of the phone line, an intake specialist for Child
Protective Services asked for details: Had CPS been involved before?
In what way was the infant at risk?

The caller explained: The baby's 19-year-old mother, abandoned by
the
child's father, had talked about smothering the infant. The mother
would leave the child with the baby's godmother even on days when
she
had nothing to do. And today, the caller said, the mother was
especially on edge.

"If [the baby] came home right now," the caller relayed, "it would
be
a problem."

The phone call lasted 15 minutes; a report was made, a CPS
investigator immediately dispatched. In the end, the child was
removed
from the home.

This wasn't a typical call to CPS' statewide intake office in
Austin:
The person making it was the baby's own mother -- reporting herself.
The vast majority of calls to the CPS hot line come from people who
can only guess at whether a child is being abused or neglected, or
is
about to be.

So how do you know when to make the call? After all, parenting is a
highly subjective topic. Some mothers and fathers spank, some leave
their children alone in the house after school, some don't pay much
attention to their kid's dirty face and fingernails.

One person's definition of effective child-rearing may be another
person's definition of bad parenting and still another person's
definition of abuse.

"And there's also the worry that you don't really want to get into
anybody's else's business," acknowledges LouAnn Pressler, a
prevention
educator at the Parenting Center in Fort Worth.

But Pressler, like other children's advocates, views the issue of
when
to call CPS as black and white.

"The law is very clear," she says. "If you see it, hear it, suspect
it, report it."

Texas law defines abuse and neglect in the Texas Family Code. And
CPS
follows the letter of that law when determining whether to
investigate
an alleged case of either. Certain situations meet definitions in
the
code and certain ones don't, says CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

In and of itself, spanking does not meet the code. Head lice does
not
meet code. And a family whose electricity has been turned off is not
necessarily abusing its children, Meisner says.

"Again, all of these are in and of themselves," she adds. "It's very
important to remember that we look at risk, and if you have 10 of
these [risk factors] . . . then certainly we look at the whole
picture."

In 2003, CPS received 186,160 reports of alleged abuse or neglect of
children. Twenty percent of those calls came from school-district
employees, 15 percent came from medical professionals, 13 percent
came
from law enforcement personnel and 12 percent from relatives. The
rest
were a combination of calls from friends, parents, the victims
themselves, child-care facilities and anonymous sources.

Most of those calls came through the statewide hot line in Austin,
where up to 100 intake specialists at a time staff the phone lines,
says Pam Chick, statewide intake program administrator. It's these
folks who decide whether a report meets the Texas Family Code
criteria
for abuse and neglect and assign the case a priority depending on
its
urgency.

The intake specialists receive three weeks of classroom training.
They
learn Texas law, CPS policies and how to interview callers to get
the
information that they need. They spend several days listening in on
calls made to the hot line. And they spend a period of time taking
calls with a supervisor's help.

The calls they handle can be as easy as providing a referral phone
number or as difficult as "a long, drawn-out, multi-family,
multi-dynamic" situation, says four-year intake specialist Eric
Semlear.

Most of the everyday people who use the hot line (i.e.
nonprofessionals) aren't sure what CPS needs to know, he notes. The
caller might say, "I saw this kid, and this kid was dirty, and the
house was filthy," Semlear says. "But we can't go by adjectives . .
..
so we try to [get them to] be as specific as we can about what's
going
on. 'When you say dirty, can you describe that, tell me what it
looked
like?' "

"There can be some emotionally heavy lifting in what we do," he
adds.

Texas law states that "any person" who thinks a child might be
abused
or neglected is required to report it. But individuals who work
directly with children -- school-district employees, mental-health
and
medical providers, and day-care workers -- "can be reprimanded up to
termination," says Meisner, for failing to do so within 48 hours of
first having suspicions.

"It's a hard call, and I want to tell you that we have many times
done
it," says Nancy Cotten, director at All Saints Episcopal Hospital
Fort
Worth Child Care and Learning Center. In a day-care situation,
Cotten
says, teachers might see children act out their experiences in play
and/or talk about things that might merit calling CPS. "It can be
violent and it can be of a sexual nature," she notes.

But Cotten says she never places a call to CPS "lightly."

"It is so hard because what happens is that it just turns the
parents'
world upside down," she says.

At the 38 day-care centers run by Child Care Associates in Fort
Worth,
which provides subsidized day care for at-risk families, teachers
begin the day with a "morning health check," says Bob Duke, vice
president for direct-care services.

It's "no more than a real quick, warm hug of the child, feel body
temperature, rub their hand across the [child's] back and see
whether
they flinch," Duke explains.

All employees of the Fort Worth school district receive a "safety
management procedures flip chart" from Director of Health Services
Jackie Thompson at the start of the school year. The chart includes
a
section with Texas Family Code definitions of abuse and neglect, and
stresses to employees their responsibility to call CPS, whether they
are a custodian or a principal.

You can risk making a family uncomfortable and embarrassed, "or a
child can be abused and end up sustaining bodily injury," Thompson
says.

"If in doubt, call it in," adds Meisner, a former CPS caseworker.
"If
you truly believe that a child is being abused or neglected, if you
don't necessarily know what meets the criteria for abuse or neglect,
put that burden on CPS."

What you can do to help?

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services oversees
Child
Protective Services, Adult Protective Services and Child Care
Licensing. The toll-free number to report abuse and neglect is (800)
252-5400. The identity of people making reports is kept
confidential.

For definitions of abuse and neglect as set forth by the Texas
Family
Code, go to www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/fa.toc.htm. Click on
"Chapter 261," then on "Section 261.001. Definitions."


http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/8419801.htm?1c


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