Comments on: Improving Child Protection in Kentucky (Moment of Silence) postscript:

By: elusivejustice

elusivejustice — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:48:49 +0000

Dawn,

Thank you so much for responding and for your passion. I’d like to know specifically what “crack” you are talking about. I have taken great pains to present both sides of the issues and if you read all my posts, you would see that I have a great deal of respect for the majority or workers who tackled this incredibly difficult job. However, having a difficult job does not give a free pass on doing the job well and ethically. Some of your co-workers seem to think it does give them that license to take short cuts. As for walking a week in your shoes - I did walk in those shoes for many YEARS - both as a worker and as a supervisor.

Also, you should know that NO social services worker in Kentucky has ever been successfully sued. Secondly, the Cabinet and indivdual workers carry far more power and authority than you seem to realize. That being said, I have posted about judges and lawyers as well. You are correct, there are unethical practitioners in every profession. Please take more time and get the fuller picture of what I have written. This is, after all, the main thing I encourage workers to do - get the fuller picture.

Thanks again.

By: Dawn Brown

Dawn Brown — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:03:53 +0000

That crack about social workers is not fair at all. Yes there are social workers who were a part of wrong doings but like in every profession there are unethical people. Don’t lump social workers all into one category.

I work for CPS and I very much support the legislative efforts to make changes to safe guard the rights of families. At the same time I know that most of the CPS employees that I encounter want to do the right things but we all are human and therefore fallible. Secondly, social workers are not the only people involved in the decisions made for these families. We are just one piece of the puzzle that makes up the child welfare system. Is anyone bashing the judges who might make poor decisions to rip families apart unnecessarily and they are elected to office?

Working for CPS is one of the hardest jobs there is. Abuse and neglect is not cut and dry to determine. If we don’t act we get bombarded from the public and even possibly sued if a child is hurt. If we do act, people are ready to attack us for breaking up families. We go into dangerous places unannounced to try to protect these kids while dealing with people who are volatile. We have case loads and responsibilities that are not even humanly possible to manage. Yet you attack us. You couldn’t walk a week in these shoes.

By: Amy Mischler

Amy Mischler — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:55:07 +0000

Now if there was just free online role-playing course that would allow social workers to identify what is actually child abuse, and that which isn’t.

By: Geoff Brown

Geoff Brown — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:36:15 +0000

I don’t know much about this specific controversy, but I’d like to make a suggeston to Kentucky teachers who want to stop child abuse more effectively. Often when teachers notice signs of child abuse, we don’t know what to say to the student. It’s a real emotional and legal minefield. So either we say the wrong thing — and send the child back into a frightened silence — or we don’t say anything. And the abuse continues. Now there’s an online role-playing course that lets teachers rehearse a conversation with a possible child abuse victim. There’s a free version, and a CEU-credit version for teachers. Hopefully it will be useful for all the teachers who’d like to reduce the epidemic of child abuse in our country.