Reporting suspected abuse? - Page 2

[pyxiwulf]

personally, I think calling CPS before exhausting other resources is despicable. Unless you have seen clear evidence of abuse, not suspect signs. CPS investigations are DEVASTATING regardless of outcome of the investigation. Nearly every time I hear someone saying "oh I would call CPS for that!" there's not one thought given to assistance and intervention. Depending on how things work in one's locality, you can be guilty until proven innocent. You're on a list for a year THE MOMENT someone calls on you NO MATTER the findings of the investigation. These things hurt families just as much as unstopped abuse.

[pyxiwulf]

[QUOTE=bella99;15650447}
So just because someone calls CPS/Child Abuse Hotline/etc. doesn't mean that someone is automatically being investigated.[/QUOTE]


speak for your jurisdiction, in mine EVERY report is investigated, EVERY reported possible offender is on a list for a year as having been reported for suspected abuse.

[damona]

as a mom who is currently dealing with cps because of my neighbour calling them and saying that my children are neglected and my house is dirty because my kids got head lice from someone just before school ended.... that list just makes me cringe.

yes, child abuse is serious. yes, it needs to be taken seriously. yes, many of the things on that list are signs of abuse, especially if there are several of them. but. if people are calling in cps because a kid has some bruises (my boys are covered in bruises, but they do it to themselves or each other), or isn't potty trained by the time that person thinks they should be (been there, too), or has dark circles under their eyes (could be allergies), or sucks their thumb (my youngest is almost 6 and still does and my 7yo just started b/c he sees his brother doing it), or, or, or... you see what i mean? you can't just look at a list and say "oh, i know that so-and-so's kid does that" and reach for the phone.

there really needs to be more common sense in the world, and also, i think that people need to either mind their own business more or offer to help or at least talk to the parents more! if my neighbour had just come over here, she would have seen that my house is not filthy and i could have told her how they got lice and that i was taking care of the situation! but instead, i now have to deal with random visits from the cps worker and he's "suggested" that i have a weekly visit from a state worker, "just to be sure" that there are no problems. i so did not need this kind of interference into my life.

norasmamma, the things you are talking about do sound like abuse, and i feel bad for those kids. i hope that cps is actually helping them somehow.

[mammal_mama]

Damona -- I hope everything gets resolved quickly, so the resources that are currently being used to interfere with your family can be used to help some family that really needs the help! What a waste!

[cm2]

I registered just to post on this thread.

I am a Protective Services Case Manager level 2, with a Bachelors in Social Work.

If you think a child is being abused please call CPS. We cannot just go knocking on doors and say, "So, Hi, Have you beaten/starved/emotionally shattered your children today?" We can't do that. We need you (collective you) to tell us that bad things are happening.

When a call is made into DCS, it goes to Central Intake. Central Intake is usually located in the state capitol, and there a worker will take your information (your call is anonymous in regards to the client. They will never know that YOU called.) and they will ask you about the suspected abuse, and where the prospective client lives.

After Central Intake hangs up with you the call will either go directly to a CPS office if it is in normal working hours or it will be bounced to the cell phone of the on-call case manager during nights/weekends. The call will be rated on a scale of 1-3. One meaning we have to respond within two hours. Two meaning we can respond within fourty eight hours. Three meaning we can respond within seventy two hours.

Honestly, the list you provided is actually very accurate. However, I have years of field experience and even more years of lecture/classroom experience to understand abuse in a way that you, none of you, do or should have to. A previous poster said something about her child having a lot of bruises. Well in college we actually watched videos (multiple videos) about the aftermath of abuse. Children get hurt, we understand that. However, there is a specific type of bruise that is different than normal childhood injuries. These are what we look for and unless you are beating your child, they will not have them. One instance is facial bruising on an immobile child, yet when the child begins to crawl we expect facial bruising, but not bruising on the inner thighs or feet.

Its not your job to determine if someone is abusing their child. However, in my opinion, it is your (everyone's) obligation to report suspected abuse. CPS is so often the bad guys. We invade personal lives, homes, and we ask a lot of questions and take a lot of pictures and take you to court. However, we do an extreme amount of good. Recently twins were taken into custody in my region and they have doubled in body weight since coming into custody. New born twins were only four pounds each. They're thriving and they'll be back in their parent's home within the year.

We help people. If I get a call on a dirty house I'm not going to remove their children, that's ludicrous. However, I can get the parents in touch with resources that can help them. An extremely dirty house is considered environmental neglect, as is not having food in the cabinets, not having heating and air conditioning, not having a coat in the winter, not having shoes, etc. And none of those are reasons to remove children. Instead, we'll get you in touch with food stamps, we'll get you an air conditioner, we'll get you a coat, we'll get you shoes.

Sorry to post a novel, but I just have to urge, if you ever feel that there is any hint of abuse at all, ever, please call it in to CPS. It may be nothing, or there may be some hungry babies in a house and a mother who doesn't know that she can get help. Or there may be something horrible going on.

Protecting children is my job, but its everyone's responsibility. Unless people call in referrals, I can't do my job and a whole lot of children are in danger. Wouldn't you rather call in a referral and it be nothing than ignore it and a child end up dead? It happens a lot. People abuse children to death, and I've seen it and I hope I never have to see it again. I want everyone to call in referrals and keep my client tree full. I want to help people or I wouldn't be doing this job.

[junipermoon]

CM2, thanks for letting us know how it goes in your area.

I have no problem with social workers, but I really think removals, beyond emergency care orders (a few days when life threatening abuse is alleged), should be quadruple approved by the social services system, by an independent PhD level psychologist (psychological concerns), by an independent PhD level anthropologist/sociologist (cultural concerns), and a judge (legal concerns). We could easily create board processes such as these to increase the likelihood of transparency, cultural competency, and integrity in the process of investigating for the potential of home removal.

I can see folks balking at the cost factor, but providing ongoing foster care costs tons of money, kids without families who age out of foster care are more likely than average to cost the state money via services needed, and most importantly, there are ethical concerns here: knowing the difference between right and wrong.

CM2, if you're reading, this is a natural parenting board, and lots of folks here worry they are vulnerable because of decisions like homeschooling, homebirthing, unassisted homebirthing, not vaccinating or selectively vaccinating: these are decisions that are made out of love and out of dedication. Some social workers, for their own personal reasons and philosophical orientations, take issues with these decisions, and these families can be subject to added scrutiny.

Like a religion, personal philosophies run deep, and this country has long been a place where the need to respect folks personal liberties has been recognized. At the same time, the boundaries of what's considered reasonable and what's considered pathological (and of WHO is considered normal or abnormal) have long been policed by the fields of medicine, psychology, and more recently, particularly at the ground level, by the field of social work and by the department of social services.

For instance, CM2 mentions lack of air conditioning as environmental abuse. Others would argue that heat in the summer is a birth right, an opportunity to cleanse the body of natural toxins, and would opt for a shady tree or a dip in the stream to cool their families.

I do think there is a lot of variety in how various protective systems work in this country--that's why removal rates, even when controlled for demographic variables, are so differerent from place to place. That is one of the reasons why people get so scared of CPS, I think.

I have been working recently on not visioning CPS as the enemy. They are not. But they do have awesome amounts of power in their hands--in order to prevent horrific abuses--and they are no less subject to internal corruption as any other state agency.

I definitely do not see CPS as a replacement for the protection offered to families by caring friends, neighbors, and the community at large. We all have to work to help prevent abuse. While calling CPS might sometimes be important (drunk man raping his kids and you know about it, etc) it is a far cry from the real efforts of caring--cooking meals for people, donating coats, offering free childcare to stressed mamas, having an open door for latch-key kids, and so on--these are the real ways to "prevent" abuse, in my thinking.