https://nytimes.com/2017/01/26/nyregion/brooklyn-ny-jaden-jordan-acs.htm
It took 2 days for child welfare workers to find a 3 year old boy in New York City. The workers had the wrong address and could not locate him before it was too late. When they finally found him he was unconscious and covered in feces. Children's services received an anonymous report and began investigating.
This child welfare office has experienced scrutiny over the last year as a result of several fatal outcomes when child welfare workers did not remove children who were at risk for abuse. The commissioner was forced to step down last month after these occurrences and their effectiveness was called into question.
This is a terrible scenario where the judgment of children's service workers is questioned and lives are lost. As social workers our priority is safety. I cannot imagine how difficult this would be or where to begin to rebuild. New regulations need to be established to get back to the basics.
How sad and tragic! Makes me wonder if this happened simply because of an error in getting the proper address or a transposition error - article just said something about getting the wrong address. Sounds like the staff tried, but it obviously was not enough. I would think that wrong addresses in a big city could happen often, but that should make whomever is taking the complaint be very aware of the need to get correct, thorough information.
ReplyDeleteI could not get the link to the article work, so I found the article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/nyregion/brooklyn-ny-jaden-jordan-acs.html
The article makes it sound like the office is understaffed and under trained. It also appears that the social workers and the police may not work together/respect each other? Too bad that they are not working together better to help these children.
So sad that whatever the cause, situations like this happen. I read an article that in response to sitautions like this in New York they have proposed a bill that would place regulations on the number of cases a child welfare worker could have. If the bill passes, workers would be able to have no more than 15 cases on their caseload. I hope that a bill like this will help the workers not be so overworked and be able to devote adequate time to each case.
ReplyDeleteI read both the articles that Naomi & Kirsten are referencing. Such a sad story! I totally agree with you that safety is our priority, for both the children we work with and ourselves. I think that the bill would be greatly beneficial in order to allow workers to have a clear mind and keep everyone safe.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad! It really makes you think about ethics and professionalism that we are taught in school. Safety for both the client and ourselves, and I agree with you that I can't imagine how hard this is for the social worker and how hard it would be to rebuild yourself after something like this happens.
ReplyDelete