Foster Care Reform Idea: Separate Services From Investigation

Who has training and expertise in investigations? Law enforcement does, CPS does not. We at REFORM talk have been discussing this idea for months. An editorial to a CPS study lays out the idea very clearly by a pediatrician quoted in Child Protective Services Found Ineffective [MedPage Today 10/4/10 by John Gever]

This article discussed an October 2010 study published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, whose conclusion was “Among 595 households followed in a longitudinal study of risk factors for child abuse, those subjected to CPS investigations showed few major differences afterward in abuse risks that existed before the inspection, compared with households that had not been assessed.”

“In an accompanying editorial, a pediatrician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle went further, arguing that the current CPS model “has outlived its usefulness.”

Abraham Bergman, MD, contended that the findings of little influence on future risk should surprise no one. “Who expects CPS to affect such basic factors as poverty, family functioning, and social support?” he asked rhetorically.

Bergman recommended that child abuse be treated as the crime that it is — with investigations handled by the police instead of social workers. The latter should focus on providing counseling and access to services that may actually modify the long-term risk child abuse factors.

In between, he added, public health nurses should be “first-line responders” for cases of suspected child neglect, as they are better equipped than social workers to be accepted in high-risk homes and can evaluate child health and family functioning.

“The changed picture of child maltreatment in the U.S. demands, at the very least, that we begin a wide-ranging discussion and testing of alternative responses,” Bergman wrote.”

Three steps:

(1) Social workers need to focus ONLY on giving services which would create an atmosphere where families in need would seek out help without fear of  the retribution of removal of their kids. Most CPS cases are of neglect and most kids return to their original homes.

(2) Child abuse should be investigated as a crime by those who know how to investigate-law enforcement.

(3) Public health nurses should be the first responders for neglect because they have the background to determine chlid health and help the family from that angle.

REFORM Puzzle Piece