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No Such Thing as "Cycle of Abuse." ...
Kane wrote
Give Greg a hand here. He's likely to be tongue tied as usual, or go off on a rant about CPS being the culpable party, Didn't you read the article? Article stated: The nine-member panel, appointed by Mayor Street last fall, conducted about 800 interviews and studied thousands of DHS files over the past six months. The result is a 218-page report identifying problems within DHS and recommendations for fixing them. Street yesterday called the report a "road map to lasting reform." But DHS has been down this road before. In the past two decades, there have been at least 22 reports examining problems within the agency. While some of the problems were corrected over the years, many persisted - and still do. "To a large extent, the recent history of this agency has been crisis, analysis, report, and inadequate change," this new report notes. This report, like many of its predecessors, found the agency is still foundering with many of the same ills: * No clear mission or guidelines. * Sloppy and shoddy case files. * An insular we-know-best culture. * Caseworkers who lack compassion, professionalism and respect for families. (One DHS client interviewed by the panel said she felt more "disrespect by DHS workers than by thugs on the street.") * Unresponsive DHS workers who fail to return repeated phone calls. * A "random" approach to decision-making. This one always begs for MORE FUNDING! The main problem, panelists found, was the agency has strayed from its core mission of child safety. It has gotten bogged down helping families who lack food and shelter - problems that should be handled by other city agencies. Families end up in the DHS system simply because they are poor, panelists said. To keep kids safe, the panel urged DHS workers to check up on children every month, rather than every six months as currently mandated. * On Jun 2, 12:05 am, "0:-]" wrote: .. or so says Greg. And uses one of the flabbiest pieces of "research" I think I've ever seen. So, what do you think about this article, Greg? Anyone? Give Greg a hand here. He's likely to be tongue tied as usual, or go off on a rant about CPS being the culpable party, and refuse to accept that the "shortcomings" had everything to do with short staffing and lack of funds to DO the suggested remedial actions. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/7780176.html Philly.com Cycle of abuse and neglect cited in blistering report By WENDY RUDERMAN 215-854-2860 Furman Furman * Jill Porter | Report just more of the same, or will this one bring change? * A TRAGIC LEGACY AT DHS The city's Department of Human Services failed David Furman as a kid. And roughly two decades later, as a young father, Furman failed his own 1-year-old son in the worst possible way: He killed him. Furman had spent his toddler years moving from one foster home to another, including one where a foster mother later confided that he had been molested. Now the 20-year-old Frankford man is in prison for shaking his crying infant to death in a frustrated rage. Furman's unstable childhood and the violent death of little Jahmir Furman tell a sad, but all too common, story of a cycle of abused or neglected children once under DHS care who grew to become murderous parents. In short, the past sins of DHS are often visited on the kids of today's still-troubled DHS system, a new report examining the child-welfare agency found. Jahmir's death was one of 52 child fatalities from July 2001 through August 2006 reviewed by a mayoral panel tasked with ending a pattern of failure within DHS. Half of the 52 children were under DHS care when they died; the other half had either previously received DHS services or were born into families formerly in the system. In the report made public yesterday, the panel found that a "shocking number" of parents who intentionally or unintentionally killed their children had been in the DHS system as children. "Many of the parents who should have been protected by the state when they were children were not well-served," the panel concludes. "The inattention to their traumatic experiences has resulted in predictable, intergenerational, devastating, dysfunctional behavior." Of the 52 deaths reviewed by the panel, 20 were victims of unspeakable abuse. They were beaten, strangled, starved, and drowned. The bodies of seven other children who died showed signs of previous physical abuse, though the city's medical examiner was unable to rule the deaths as homicides. The rest - 25 of the 52 - died from unsafe sleeping conditions, unintentional accidents, illness, or sudden unexplained infant death. In fact, babies were the most likely to die: 34 of the 52 were infants. In 50 percent of the infant deaths, at least one parent had been in DHS as a child, according to the report. These parents, said one panel member, represent "failures of our child welfare system - without a doubt." Some of the infant deaths might have been prevented if DHS caseworkers had been taught to look for not-so-obvious safety risks, like a caretaker's history of child abuse or neglect. "As former victims of child abuse, they often were dealing with drug abuse, mental health problems, and domestic violence," the report states. "This strongly suggests that the agency did not recognize the risk inherent in having been a victim of maltreatment." The panel recommended that DHS implement by June 30 a uniform safety checklist for caseworkers to use when they visit homes. The list will include both obvious safety risks, like whether there is faulty electrical wiring in the house, and less obvious risks, such as whether the mom has a new boyfriend staying at the house. The nine-member panel, appointed by Mayor Street last fall, conducted about 800 interviews and studied thousands of DHS files over the past six months. The result is a 218-page report identifying problems within DHS and recommendations for fixing them. Street yesterday called the report a "road map to lasting reform." But DHS has been down this road before. In the past two decades, there have been at least 22 reports examining problems within the agency. While some of the problems were corrected over the years, many persisted - and still do. "To a large extent, the recent history of this agency has been crisis, analysis, report, and inadequate change," this new report notes. This report, like many of its predecessors, found the agency is still foundering with many of the same ills: * No clear mission or guidelines. * Sloppy and shoddy case files. * An insular we-know-best culture. * Caseworkers who lack compassion, professionalism and respect for families. (One DHS client interviewed by the panel said she felt more "disrespect by DHS workers than by thugs on the street.") * Unresponsive DHS workers who fail to return repeated phone calls. * A "random" approach to decision-making. The main problem, panelists found, was the agency has strayed from its core mission of child safety. It has gotten bogged down helping families who lack food and shelter - problems that should be handled by other city agencies. Families end up in the DHS system simply because they are poor, panelists said. To keep kids safe, the panel urged DHS workers to check up on children every month, rather than every six months as currently mandated. * Updated 12:00 AM EDT |
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