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Treating the problem
On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:51:59 -0500, wexwimpy
wrote: Treating the problem A Times Editorial Published January 20, 2004 More than half of all Florida parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children are hooked on drugs or alcohol. Yet only a handful ever receive treatment, and even fewer complete it. State leaders need to get serious about giving substance-abusing parents real help in kicking their habits. Until they do, Florida won't reduce the incidence of child abuse in a sustained way. In 39 child abuse and neglect cases recently reviewed by the staff of the Florida Senate Children and Families Committee, 23 involved a parent on drugs. Only seven of those parents were admitted for drug treatment, and just three successfully finished the program. As in most substance-abuse cases, Department of Children and Families caseworkers took longer than usual in deciding whether to reunify these families. In the end, they did so a mere 17 percent of the time - compared with 64 percent when drugs were not an issue. State leaders aren't oblivious to the problem, but their efforts to address it have been halfhearted. The Legislature has spent a modest sum on expanding treatment, including $5-million for "family intervention specialists" in each DCF district to work with substance-abusing parents. But the money has met only a fraction of the need. Committee staff found that even the specialists spend too much of their limited time and money documenting a parent's drug habit (through urinalysis testing), rather than helping the parent break it. Years after being told by lawmakers to do so, DCF still does not track and evaluate its services for substance-abusing parents. "[T]he significant gap between the numbers of parents identified as needing substance abuse services and the number of parents actually... receiving the treatment indicates that further improvements are needed in order to achieve better outcomes for children and families with substance abuse issues," the staff concluded in November. Substance-abusing parents, especially those who mistreat or neglect their children, aren't a sympathetic group. But there are many reasons beyond sympathy to help these parents get back on track. With treatment, parents stand a better chance of maintaining jobs and regaining their confidence along with custody of their children. Without it, their children are likely to stay in foster care - at taxpayers' expense - where their chances of growing into healthy and productive adults decline dramatically http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/20/Op..._problem.shtml This was standard child welfare practice pre 1990, which even CAPTA, during that time, failed to change...because it had no teeth. Just for reference so you understand some of the child welfare laws in place: http://www.cwresource.org/hotTopics/asfa/app4.htm For those who actually care about the truth, a search on any of the bills and laws listed will show clearly how the phony balogna "CPS reformers" have constantly lied in these ngs on many related subjects. Prior to 1997 the failure to have laws to stop the nonsense in place resulted in Mommy Druggist, and Daddy Drunkedist, partying their children's childhoods away with the kids in state custody and the parent doing perpetual rehab, between binges and partyting. Legislators used to refer to it as "State babysitting for partiers." The public got a little tired of it, as their representatives showed by the passage of various laws designed to put a stop to it, but still offer them a chance to rehab, one last chance that is. The trick is to find the nearest point to balance and continue teetering there, as a representative democracy (this one anyway) is designed to perform and produce the results it does, and we are still freer than any nation on earth. Well, I will admit that in some other countries parents are far more likely to be allowed to torture, rape, and kill their children without sanctions. That could be counted, in some perverse way, as more freedom. Darn, if only we could get back to the good old days of parenting in this country. Kane |
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