Archive for the ‘Child Abuse’ Category
The Ongoing Normal: Tax Fraud in L.A. Foster Care
The Ongoing Normal: Tax Fraud in L.A. Foster Care
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
Article first published as The Ongoing Normal: Taxpayer Fraud in L.A. Foster Care on Technorati.
Two reporters from the Los Angeles times have just won a Pulitzer Prize http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20110419,0,7977149.column for their story on the ongoing corruption by the city of Bell California government officials and politicians.
Several members of this small city of mostly immigrants of limited wealth were paying themselves up to a million dollars a year. Part time Council members had to settle for several hundred thousand dollars, and the assistant controller was earning the well over a half million.
Why bring this up here when our focus is on abused and neglected children in foster care?
Most of us recall the City of Bell story was gigantic. And for good reason. Individuals whose very job was to serve and protect the community instead profited off of it enormously. We found it disgusting, the obvious greed and contempt for their constituents who they most of thought of as pathetic sheep.
And it strikes a nerve, using our tax dollars to enrich themselves from innocent, decent, hard-working people, just trying to survive, make a life for themselves and their children, and basically, live their part of the American Dream.
So we must ask in our media outlets, why do we hear or read so little about the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars each year which are siphoned from money meant for abused and neglected children? Apathy? Racism? Cover-up? What don’t we get?
It is true, the author knows of no single individual in the Foster Agency system earning a million a year, but what about close to half that amount? Is that scandal enough for you?
What if the same individuals worked in their Foster Agency office infrequently, and rarely did any actual work despite the 6 figure salary that the modest population from the City of Bell could only dream of?
Well, many of the business folks, these guys and girls, have other businesses that need attention. The foster agency already provides the guaranteed check, and they are supervised by …well nobody.
And they know a perfectly able relative (we hope) to do the actual administration. And that lackey will earn a salary commensurate with their status of being a relative to #1.! It’s good to have influential family, no? Nice non-work if you can get it.
The cynical calculations of the culprits goes something like this. They know that if abused and neglected children in foster care with their agencies receive adequate care the county will generally turn a blind eye towards all but the most blatant malfeasance. And experience has shown them that they are right.
County audits seem to focus on social worker documentation and brief interviews with foster children, along with a prearranged and known in advance inspection of the home. Talk about collusion… And the auditors? Well they will find something, they always do, jeepers, it’s their job! They will always need to find enough to show they are doing it…
Forensic accounting seems beyond any consistent county supervision with even cursory financial audits taking place less than twice in a decade.
Is it too much to expect inspectors to honestly verify that directors and administrators answerable only to a Board of Directors stocked by friends and family actually work full time for the salary for which they are paid?
We are indeed speaking about a cumulative financial windfall equal or much greater than the malfeasance witnessed in Bell. And it’s been going on for 2 decades.
If you want to delegate work and authority to the point where you rarely need be on hand, open a widget factory and bask in the American Dream. You’ve earned it.
If you want to help Abused and Neglected Children – Need I say it? Be there.
We have spoken with employee after employee, received confidential (always confidential) emails from place after place, all saying the same thing, all saying the above. And nobody in government seems to care as it goes on year after year until the foolish Administrator or Director pisses off enough angry employees that true to form, these disgruntled folk go on to make so many true (and sometimes false) allegations that the County is forced to expend time and funds to investigate. Time and funds….hmm….
Maybe their hands are tied. Maybe the laws are weak. Yet why hasn’t that been looked at?
Our County Board of Supervisors knows what a cesspool the agency system has become. But then they knew about MLK Hospital for 2 decades and could do nothing until some poor soul died on the waiting room floor in front of a camera while a janitor swept around her. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/13/local/me-calls13
A missing quarter million was only a minor annoyance until the alleged murder of Viola Vanclief broke the camel’s back. https://joshuaallenonline.com/2010/04/29/la-foster-care-fairy-tales-from-the-unforgiven-a-story-of-greed-hypocrites-and-those-who-did-nothing/ Oh yes, a teachable moment. After 2 decades such things are easy to get used to, and that’s the rub.
Without a doubt, DCFS has tightened up on care and safety issues to the benefit of hard working social workers, foster parents, and most importantly abused children. Foster Care is hard, and we admire this brave and largely unsung work.
However, don’t Abused and Neglected Children deserve better?
Don’t we?
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
Diary of a Mad Social Worker
Pain Inside: The Business of Child Abuse
Diary of a Mad Social Worker
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
A few days ago the author was approached by a social worker. The interview covered several topics. The worker wishes to remain anonomous.
We know, this is true for just about every source that speaks with us. There is a lot of fear out there. It shouldn’t be that way; we are writing about child abuse, and the individuals who try to do something about it, the brave ones on all sides who try to make a difference.
* * * *
The Young Social Worker got to know Rodolfo as a toddler, just when he was barely able to walk on his new legs. Originally, he was placed into foster care because of a head trauma that caused a subdural hematoma.
The Social Worker was very young and inexperienced, and was only vaguely aware that subdural hematoma was one of the classic symptoms of shaken baby syndrome.
Rodolfo’s parents were undocumented, and only spoke Spanish. Originally, the birth mother blamed Rodolfo’s injury on the babysitter who denied it. The County Department of Children Services did not know whom to believe, and in those days the policy was to remove the child and ask questions later. So Rodolfo was taken from the birth parents (who again, were here illegally) and placed into brand new, recently certified foster home.
The young Agency Social Worker visited the home faithfully once per week and spent a good amount of time getting to know the foster parents and Rodolfo. The worker liked the foster parents, who were always polite and friendly. The home was immaculate as the mother stayed at home with Rodolfo and her other toddler.
Over time, the young Agency Worker was puzzled because the County Social Worker (CSW) had never visited the home or seen Rodolfo. There were a few calls concerning some medical information but she eventually only visited the home one time in about 3 months. The Agency Social Worker continued to visit the home and see Rodolfo week after week, finding the toddler to be in good health, happy, and apparently well cared for.
After 3 months the Agency Social Worker (ASW) received a page (in those days people used pagers) from a doctor requesting permission to take whatever tests he found necessary for Rodolfo. At the time he said he was concerned about meningitis. Later however, Rodolfo was found to have another sub-dermal hematoma in a location different from the original injury, and the doctor believed it was from Shaken Baby syndrome.
Rodolfo was immediately transported to County USC Hospital for more tests. Rodolfo had actually had a seizure while being visited by his real mother and father and they along with the foster parents had followed the toddler from one hospital to another. Eventually, the birth parents, the foster parents, and the Agency Social worker all followed Rodolfo to the next hospital.
Rodolfo was found there to have finger marks on his leg. The young social worker had not seen this before and the marks were recent. The marks looked awful, as if he had been picked up upside down with one hand. Upon seeing this, the doctors became very angry and blamed the social worker for certifying the foster family who continued to deny that anything improper had happened in their home.
At one point the doctor said, “This is Shaken Baby syndrome until I say it’s not!”
There was one slight possibility however. Rodolfo’s previous injury which occurred at another place on his head may have been the cause of this new blood clot in the brain. It would be necessary to compare the images from the first injury to the images from the second.
However, the digital images from the first hospital no longer existed and would need to be reconstructed. The county worker who visited once during the 3-4 month period was not anxious to facilitate this.
The birth parents being undocumented and fearful of making any waves did not press the issue. The agency, glad that the baby was now in another home and the case terminated made no further investigation and were happy to have their hands washed of the whole thing, (in those days the agencies did their own investigations) and the original foster parents were told to seek certification with another agency should they desire. They probably did.
The Agency Worker believes that no further inquiry was ever made and that the case was allowed to fade away. Weeks later the foster-father who had always been polite and appropriate came to the agency and complained that the Agency Worker did nothing to defend them. He became extremely loud and lost his temper which was something never before observed.
The director of the agency put a stop to the meeting and asked the foster parents to leave.
The strongest image of that long night for the Agency worker was when Roldolfo’s quiet and fearful birth parents asked the Agency Social Worker at the County Hospital if they could have permission to see their baby. The Agency Social Worker had no authority and referred the couple to the angry doctor. Roldolfo’s parents then thanked the worker and seemed to believe the foster parents when they said they had done nothing.
Rodolfo may have brain damage; it is many years later and the Agency Social Worker does not know. Often, late at night, he wonders.
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
Billable Hours and Foster Care: Made for each other.
The Business of Child Abuse
We have received a few communications of late about a program called “Wrap Around.” Below are 2 letters the author has received that makes some important points. The author’s comments are in paragraphs and the writer of the email chooses to remain anonymous.
Wrap Around works to keep families together. And in foster care, an abused or neglected child may expect to have up to 3 different individuals visiting them during the week. These individuals are expected to help the child adjust, and or deal with the various problems or difficulties that arise from being placed into a foster home.
Wrap Around seems to have a mixed record, some question the abilities and credentials of the individuals that are hired; (“Para-professionals), others want to know how they are measuring a success rate. Three individuals visiting a home once or twice a week for a single child represent a lot footsteps being tracked around the carpet.
Below is the first email:
Dear Joshua,
I only worked in wraparound for a couple of months, so I cannot give you a very objective view of what’s really going on there, and/ or with other agencies. I had to get out of there because it is a very high paced and aggressive approach to work with families.
Workers, as usual, are pressed to bill weekly hours to DMH, (Department of Mental Health) so there is a lot of “harassment” to the families to make use of the services. The team ( parent partner, child specialist, facilitator, and therapist) meets weekly at the family’s home, and in addition, the parent partner, the child specialist, and the therapist go to the home at least once per week, so in total the family receives wraparound visits up to 4 times a week. (Wow, that’s a lot of billable hours)!
It’s a very intensive program, with the goal of keeping children in the home, and avoiding out of home placements. It’s said to have a 90% success rate. It might be so, but my impression at this agency was not that one. (Hmm, 90% success rate…where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, elections in dictatorships…)
To me, the team was just another extension of a dysfunctional family. Usually what happens are the moms and the parent partner (who is assigned to work with the moms) engage in a battle with the child and the child specialist (who is assigned to work with the child). There is much miscommunication between members of the team, lots of cancellations, errors in scheduling, and disorganization, because each member of the team works on other teams which work with different families. (Got that?) (Just remember, billable hours.)
DMH, probation, parent advocates, and county representatives meet with the team twice a month in order to review the plan and progress of the family. They might have the best of intentions to monitor the effectiveness of these services, but like I said in my prior communication, not everything is brought up on the table. (Gee, I wonder what is not discussed?)
In the short time that I was there, workers were having anxiety attacks, and going on stress leave. A very high turnover. (This is not a rare occurrence, we have seen this at many agencies, especially since musical chair workers are brought in and fired at a ridiculous rate. One agency, for example, almost had a 100% annual turnover rate)
The money assigned for the family is called flex funds, but it is usually given as the last resort, supposedly because they want the families to make use of community resources first.
So in summary, the system not only profits from the families, but also burns out honest workers who initially want to make a difference in these children’s lives, but who ultimately end up running the rat race set up by the system, because they need to earn a living too! And in order to do that they need to bill, bill, and bill. (Well heck, it’s only taxpayer money…)
When did the helping profession paradigm change from service to productivity? Maybe it changed while I was going to school, or maybe things have always been the way they are now; maybe I was too naive in thinking that it was all about helping people.
And with regards to Wraparound services, here is a brief previously published comment from another worker:
“Wrap around programs are supposed to include the community and be extremely flexible. I have had to deal with a lot of wrap around programs. Once in a great while they know what they are doing and try to help the children.
They usually they follow a happy talk formula that does nothing to help the children and create more tension and are more likely to cause a failed placement. They are a waste of funds and time. Most of the families I work with will not accept a wrap around child if they have to continue with wrap around. If they would do something other than there boring meetings and actual follow the Sonoma model they are based on they might be a help.
As it is, it is another stupid program that does nothing (and sometimes) hurts the children.”
So what is one to make of all this? A program paved with good intentions. How dare we criticize our meager efforts to keep families together.
“Does anybody really care?”
Joshuaallenonline.com
Josuhaallenonline@gmail.com
The Real Abused Foster Children of Watts and Compton.
"...taking candy from a foster child."
The REAL Abused Foster Children of Watts and Compton!
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
Article first published as The Real Abused Foster Children of Watts and Compton on Technorati.
Abused children; they are all shapes, ages, races, and colors. Abused children arrive into foster care tortured, screamed at, beaten, shaken, slapped, whipped, ignored, neglected, raped, burned, sexually molested, driven crazy, and a million other things terrible to imagine and witness.
Adults perpetrate these horrible crimes towards children. And the rub, after these crimes are perpetrated, other adults profits from them – legally! Another rub: Some of these profiteers (and honestly, this is what they are) are considered by many to be pillars of the community. Employees, social workers, foster parents, they see this hypocrisy, and wonder daily why it is tolerated.
So these “pillars,” go on the radio, they pontificate about sacrifice and the various helping programs they run for abused children. Unsaid and unnoticed, their financial cut from all these programs.
They ask for funds and donations from the community with little public audit or oversight, and none from family and friends serving as board members.
They attach themselves to any politician and community organizer they get their paws on to better add legitimacy.
They use race as a means to an end, with the end being money and prestige within the community of choice.
They take donations: Donations, donations, donations! It is good to contribute to abused and neglected children. But do it with a service such as tutoring or lessons, or if the donation is a physical object, insist that it makes its way to the foster child.
They give speeches at wonderful heartwarming self-congratulatory events.
They put spouses in charge while they themselves attend to their outside business interests, all the while continuing to collect six figure full-time salaries.
They continue to act as a consultant to other agencies after being booted from Los Angeles County for malfeasance. Later they open up another agency in a different county because it remains all they can do and nobody stops them. Should a person who “earned” a million dollars in less than 3 years from toiling in the trenches for abused and neglected children be allowed to open up a similar agency just down the street?
They get away with most of their gains while the county seems to content itself with a single year payback and liquidation of that ill-gotten condo. What good does it do to pursue the law or sense of decency?
They have contempt for licensing and auditing agencies which are obsessed with various paperwork, forms, and signature issues while turning a blind eye towards financial malfeasance and questionable child care.
History has taught these “pillars,” how to manipulate books and employment records. It’s not rocket science and they soon learn there is nobody for which they must account for their time. Time cards are filled out like scrap paper.
Board Members – check signers – are friends and family with a long history of their own little deals which they believe is their right each and every year.
We have named some names this past year but not all. https://joshuaallenonline.com/2010/02/24/foster-care-crimes-misdemeanors-and-greed/
https://joshuaallenonline.com/2010/02/24/the-business-of-child-abuse-kids-full-of-dollars/
Consequently, we have received threats of violence which is annoying.
Others have also received threats in the mistaken notion by these thugs that they were responsible for writing these truths. There is a lot of money at stake, and we know what people will do for money.
We have also received a lot of support from county and agency officials current and retired and all understandably afraid to attach their name or go on the record about any of this.
Los Angeles county officials know all of this and their limited efforts to change things for the better have failed, utterly failed.
There are a lot of reasons for this inaction. Apathy, investigative costs vs. benefits, multicultural politics, stupidity and self-preservation for being part of the pathetic mess. For what could be more pathetic than taking candy from foster children?
One cannot complain about media distortions. Facts have to be reported before they can be manipulated or denied. Apathy by news sources seems a bit incomprehensible, since the amounts of money siphoned from abused and neglected children associated with just a few agencies exceeds the yearly totals looted from the city of Bell California.
Maybe the Feds should investigate since our local authorities don’t seem to be doing much of a job. With all the billions at stake you would think there would be some type of federal consent decree.
It’s not sexy, it’s not much written about, and sometimes we despair there will ever be a light shined on this pathetic malfeasance.
Working with abused and neglected foster children is a calling. Working with these children is not a right. It is not means towards salaries of many hundreds of thousands.
It is not a business built up until a relative or spouse is installed to run things while keeping a six figure salary, but concentrate the majority of your time on personal and private affairs.
It may be the family business, but it is not a private company. The Business of Child Abuse is our business, it is our concern, it is our money, and it is our children who suffer.
And taking money from them must be answered for.
Joshuaallenonlline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
On Child Abuse, Therapy and “Blood to a Vampire.”
On Child Abuse, Therapy, and “Blood to a Vampire.”
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
To misquote WC Fields; “Therapy to a Social Worker is like Blood to a Vampire.”
Therapy is the number one tool that Social Workers use to assist Abused and Neglected children through the continuing crisis of past and future thoughts, behaviors and feelings that make up the lousy world of a foster child.
It is not always the birth parents that can cause emotional trauma. Even the best intentions of all involved workers and foster parents can and do lead to further anguish as the stricken child is led through the maze of Social Workers, Therapists, Lawyers, Judges, Foster Parents, Birth Parents, Medi-Cal restrictions, indifferent public school teachers and assorted fools and well-meaning dunces to whom they come into contact.
It is the very desperation to help these children that lead to the referral of therapists as one of the first things a Social Worker will do when a new child is put on his or her caseload.
Often, one of the first difficulties to arise concerns the scarcity of Bilingual therapists who can speak the language of the foster child and for that matter the foster parent. The majority of foster children in Los Angeles are of Hispanic parents.
Therapists are frequently interns (Post educational counselors working on their hours to satisfy licensing requirements). These “interns,” are supervised by licensed therapists who hopefully ensure time is well spent while the intern learns their new trade treating foster children.
The quality of these interns varies, and it is in the clinics or individual therapists’ economic interest to keep these children in therapy as long as possible. That does not mean therapists are acting unethically, it only means there is a financial incentive involved, and there are times Medi-Cal is billed for unneeded therapy. A foster child will need to have a minimal diagnosis (such as oppositional defiant disorder) before the government may be billed and such treatment is justified. Some therapists become quite expert in doing just that.
However (and the author can only speak anecdotally), few interns or for that matter therapists have had any significant amount of therapy themselves, and so they are minimally aware of what it is like to sit on the other side of the couch, beyond some of their graduating requirements.
Many would claim that this is not a limitation on the intern’s ability to do good work. Therapy after all is time consuming and expensive and significant results (without the use of psychotropic medications) can take a great deal of time.
The efficacy of therapy for foster children then is something not often discussed, since there are few if any real alternatives or substitutes that can partially make up for why a child is placed in foster care in the first place.
Some children go through so many therapists over the years that they seem to be immune to any of the tools a therapist brings to the table. Abused and Neglected Children may continue with failing grades, dangerous sex, drug use and petty crime until they emancipate or return home to their birth family where things are worse.
This game of “musical therapists,” is something seen with foster children who are in the system for a few years often being placed into half dozen or more homes during that time.
Psychotropic medication often works to help a child but is controversial and many therapists and social workers don’t like them as they believe:
1. The use of psychotropic medications only masks symptoms and fails to deal with the underlying problem; or is too toxic for young livers.
2. Psychotropic medications are used too much as a sort of economical behavior modifying agent.
3. Social workers and therapists may have a societal or cultural influenced prejudice against the use medications in general whenever a child is involved.
Tricky indeed.
Ignorance in this area is not unprecedented within the community of therapists, case workers, politicians and media organizations. The half hour, impossible to get, infrequent appointments with a government psychiatrist doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
The charge of “Over Medicating,” is so over used and self-satisfying that it often precludes any real discussion regarding pros and cons and becomes a lazy rejoinder to such a complex issue.
Of course, a foster child will always do better in a foster home that is loving, kind, and nurturing.
And that’s not complex at all.
Joshuaallenonline.com
Return to Business as Normal
The Business of Child Abuse
We have been away for a while taking care of some business overseas. We are back now. And despite threats of violence (which is very annoying), we plan on continuing the good fight. The Business of Child Abuse working hand in hand with corruption continues unabated and apparently without significant investigation by those we entrust to do just that. We have several finished articles that will be published in various places including here.
The publishers of this blog want to thank everyone for their support and well wishes. We could not have done this the past year without you. Articles written and viewed here have been republished elsewhere and read many thousands of times all over the world. We can hope and pray that somewhere those in power hear the voices of these children we try with humility to speak for.
I received this letter awhile back and have permission to reprint. The author wishes to remain anonymous. I have removed references to the authors identity and made a few cosmetic changes to clarify things a bit. The writer points are cogent and certainly true. The author references something called Wraparound Services which is another service by the county made in the spirit of good intentions. Like Family Preservation it leaves much to be desired but does do some good.
Again, we want to thank everyone for their support and good will. And just a short message to those who make threats and oppose for obvious reasons our continuing to write the truth. We’re baaack…
Joshua Allen
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
“Dear Joshua,
“…I worked for Refugio Para Ninos and United Care as a FCSW, (Foster Care Social Worker) and believe me, you are 100% right. Some FFA (Foster Family Agencies) directors know each other very well because they worked together as FCSW’s, and eventually got their own FFA’s. They know how to run their business, and advise each other. They also know Senior DCFS supervisors for years, and can get away with inappropriate placements. The FCSW is just another piece on the chess board which they move at their convenience, and when the FCSW is not willing to go along with their game, well, they just fire them. Several times I had to take children away from abusive foster homes, but (The Director) could do nothing about it because he knew that I would move heaven and earth to make sure these kids were safe, so he just let me do the move.
I am no longer in foster care, but I worked for a while in Wraparound, and believe me, this is another gold mine for “non-profit” organizations. The philosophy is to do anything it takes to maintain the family intact, but the name of the game is to bill as many contact hours with the family as possible to get the money. A part of the program funds is supposedly for the family, but agencies make it (extremely difficult) for the family to get the money, so most of it goes to workers’ salaries, and who know where else?
This agency I was working for advised the workers to speak as little as possible during county, DMH, (Department of Mental Health) and parole meetings about the work they were doing with the families, and to never volunteer information for fear that these agencies (DMH, county, and parole) find out the poor job they were doing with these families.
Frustrated by the pressure to bill hours, I once told my supervisor that I had gone to school to serve families, not to accumulate billing hours. The following week I was called into the office, and was fired due to “not working within expected standards”. The saddest thing of all is that these people are making a huge business with our children and families.
Thank you for telling it like it is.”
DCFS FAIL: You Can’t Handle the Truth
DCFS FAIL: You Can’t Handle the Truth
The Business of Child Abuse:
By Joshua Allen
Can’t we all just tell the Truth?
DCFS is now investigating who is leaking information to the LA Times regarding fatalities of children who had contact with the department during the past year. The department lays out their circled wagons, and obviously the Times feel a bit differently. You can read about it here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-services-20100816,0,869235.story
So where to begin?
Leaks!??? What are we talking about here? National Security? Industrial Espionage? Medical records? What exactly was leaked? As far as I can tell, no names of offending Social Workers or administrators were released. The names of children in foster care remain private, and once a child is killed or murdered his name becomes public record.
No; What DCFS is concerned about is the how, why and what, with regard to these fatalities. Not the “who.” Six figure DCFS deputies must be quaking in their boots.
It seems to me that they don’t want us to know what happened.
They don’t want us to know about the screw ups. They don’t want us to know how they could have prevented the deaths. They don’t want us to know anything that could shed a negative light on the department. Basically, what other conclusion is there? That is of course, the conclusion beyond the party line.
And DCFS does this by hiding behind laws designed to protect the privacy of children, abusive parents and the identities and locations of foster parents?
Don’t get me wrong, this is a Good law. It protects children. But you see, the children whom the Times are trying to find out about are DEAD!
We don’t want to know the names of children in foster care. We don’t want to know the names of their parents. We don’t want to know the names of Social Workers and Administrators who may have screwed up.
We want to know what happened.
Why did the children die? What were the results of the internal self-serving investigation? You know, the stuff they are hiding from us the public, the people who pay them.
Are they so afraid of lawyers and getting sued? …. Oops, uhh I guess that was a stupid question. Are they so afraid of an outside investigation they cannot control? Are they so afraid of public outrage? Another stupid question – I’m on a roll.
We have the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors who shriek “What about the Children?” whenever it suits their political needs.
It is not black and white of course. Deep inside Supervisors must really want to help abused children. Just like they wanted the patients in MLK Hospital to get better for 2 decades as it became a political football to all and any who needed a brief rise in poll numbers or an easy demonstration of faux outrage.
Jorge Tarin hangs himself http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_15613328 immediately after speaking to several teachers, mental health workers and county social workers. He is living improperly in proximity to a felon and treated like a second class Cinderella in his own home, begging anyone who would listen about his troubles at home and bullies at school.
He is dead and what is the response? Investigate the leaks?
Technology which may have saved his life lay rotting in storage. Investigate the leaks?
Viola Vanclief is a victim of homicide while living in a home with a convicted felon and a substantiated child abuser, both associated with an agency known for its greed, and incompetent administrator who told their own worker to visit the child at the office so she wouldn’t have cause to complain about the unsafe living conditions.
And what is the response?
Disgraced CEO Craig Woods is free to change the name of his organization and continue to profit in one way or another in the business of child abuse. Oh and don’t forget the little matter of the two hundred grand that United Care still needs to return.
And what is the response?…
Double and triple dipping agency CEO’s are paid to work full time in separate counties, consulting psychiatrists are paid $300,000 for 20 hours of weekly work, serial sexual harassers continue to be associated with a foster agency, and what is their response?
There is no response.
Believe me I’ve asked. Maybe someone else should contact Gloria Molina-Aviles the Supervisors person on point, or Ridley Thomas. Or perhaps Nishith Bhat who is the department spokesperson.
Around 2 dozen children who had contact one way or another with DCFS die each year and the department hides and attempts to obfuscate the truth and their own possible culpability after promising a new era of openness and clarity. Where have I heard this before?
Our police force under federal mandate, receives a top to bottom overview and reorganization not once but several times during the past decade, and yet DCFS, perhaps 2 thirds the size must be satisfied with locally and incompetently done audits by politicians, Unions and Apparatchiks with a personal and political agenda in keeping things the same.
DCFS is a department of over 6,500 people with a budget of billions of dollars. Yet, unlike our police force, there is no consent decree, no Christopher Commission, no real outside watch beyond a couple of excellent investigative reporters who write about them.
DCFS runs a program “Family Preservation,” that doesn’t really preserve much but continues to be a means of lucrative income to anyone smart enough to obtain a contract with the proper community imprimatur. The program continues year after year with little audit (as to its effectiveness) to its stated purpose beyond good intentions.
Where are the statistics that prove this wrong? That show that after a decade the billions spent have worked? That there is something, anything beyond the inertia of the program itself that demonstrates it should continue beyond the cause of making work for moonlighting “Para- professionals.”
But I digress.
Stop making work for the lawyers and tell us about the fatalities. We’ll understand that you’re human, that screw ups happen despite the sincere intentions of most who simply want to rescue children. Because in the end, we know that is what the good and decent people from DCFS are mostly about. This is a noble profession they have chosen.
Leaks?
What’s next, an Enemies List?
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
Extra Extra: Trish Ploehn has a Clue!
Extra Extra: Trish Ploehn has a Clue!
By Joshua Allen:
The Business of Child Abuse.
News Broadcast: According to Trish Ploehn DCFS director:
“Social workers didn’t think much about education until the past few years. We kind of thought of it as the schools’ job,” said LA County Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn. “But in LA we’re understanding that it’s not just about finding young people a safe and permanent home, but that we’re responsible for their general well-being — education included.”
Okay, so that’s taken a little out of context, the entire article and example of cutting edge journalism can be read here. http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/foster_care_learning_curve/8888/
There is so much wrong here, where to start? DCFS wasn’t aware how bad LA City schools are? Not aware how LA city and county schools were failing our children and foster children in particular? Didn’t reach out until very recently with a plan to assist foster teens to graduate and avoid being thrown out into the streets?
I wish the reporter Joel Piasecki had delved a bit more deeply into these and other questions that presented themselves. I’m not saying there is not a role for solution based journalism, but who is asking the tough questions?
Solutions beyond extolling success stories should include shedding light on the need for reform and exposure of malfeasance. There is more than enough to go around. And frankly, it is reporting that I just don’t see enough of.
Solutions include demonstrating when programs that cost tens of millions don’t work such as “Family Preservation,” considered by those in the know as a money-maker for minimally trained professionals and does little to actually keep families together or for children from ending up in the system.
DCFS is a multi-billion dollar program whose accountability needs to be called into question, and not just when a child like Viola Vanclief is killed, which is about the only time the LA Board of Supervisors gets into the act. These are the same people minus Ridley Thomas that allowed MLK Hospital to fester and kill for decades.
By now we know the horrible statistics: A huge percentage of foster teens never graduate, end up homeless after ageing out of the system, and while in school are placed in special education classes at a rate many times higher than other children.
And now thank heavens, DCFS and social workers have learned they are responsible for the “…general well-being, – education included,” of foster children.
Actually, any social worker of worth has known the above. Agency social workers in particular have epic fights with the public schools preventing throw away foster children from being placed into unnecessary special education classes, suspended without proper cause and having no parent to advocate on their behalf.
How would any child do if they were first abused, bounced around to an average of 4 homes and pulled from one therapist to another as they move from place to place? How can we expect any different from a public school system that lets down such a high percentage of children?
So for the past year or 2, County officials have now understood that Foster Teens need help within the schools? Our cup is now full! Only the problem of course is cost.
The program mentioned in the article actually seems helpful and was funded with discretionary funds from Gloria Molina of $400,000. Bravo!
The $400,000 is just a little bit more than the salaries from some of our illustrious double and triple dipping agency CEO’s for a single year.
CEO’s paid with tax dollars to work full-time in one county, who are also paid to run an agency with tax dollars to work full-time and run an agency in another county. (Um…just because you fill out time cards doesn’t mean you are working 80 hours at two jobs and besides, as far as government work is concerned, “full time,” equals a single job and a single payday. But alas as I am want to do, I quibble.
We have CEO’s and executives owning sex shops, another serially sexually harassing workers for years and trying to get the taxpayer to pick up the lawyer bill. We have CEO’s double and triple dipping in various counties, psychiatrists working part-time being paid by their board member friends several hundred grand a year. There is financial malfeasance all over the place and CEO’s who were forced out by the county allowed to mostly keep their ill-gotten gains. And agency board members with their little deals helping their friends do the above and more year after year.
Does anyone think this is acceptable? Do some of these CEO’s donate to particular candidates, or allow their agencies to be used as a political backdrop? I’d love to hear some of your stories.
I think a lot of other people would.
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
LA Foster Care: Fairy Tales from The Unforgiven. A Story of Greed, Hypocrites and Those who did Nothing.
LA Foster Care: Fairy Tales from The Unforgiven.
A Story of Greed, Hypocrites and Those who did Nothing.
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
Authors Note: The following is a fairy tale. Any similarity to people, living or dead, or to actual events is purely a coincidence.
In the Child Abuse Industrial Complex, Foster Children are cared for and represented by 3 distinct and separate entities. The Department of Children and Family Services, the Children’s Courts, and the Foster Parents.
This is one story:
Once upon a time on a world far far away there was a Tragic Toddler who was taken out of her home and put into foster care.
Now one day, for reasons only known by the Gods, the toddler was killed when the disgraceful Foster Parent hit her with a hammer. And to this day the reasons remain obscure and impossible to fathom…
Now this horribly tragic Toddler had an Imaginary Foster Care Social Worker (FCSW).
The Foster Care Social worker was a very busy lady. She had many jobs and dozens of cases and was pulled in so many directions her community and friends wondered how she could possibly keep track of all the foster children.
The legal limit was 15 but nobody was counting, and this Social Worker was assigned to monitor the tragic toddler’s home, (And as we quickly learned, the toddler didn’t count either). The Social Worker was supposed to visit weekly but who knows. Maybe we should ask?
However, the Imaginary Social Worker does visit the home at least once. And she does not like what she sees, no, no, not at all! What a rotten home.
She tells her Imaginary Supervisor problems with the home and more importantly, problems with the foster parent.
“What the heck is going on?” She asks. “Do you know this lady?”
The Imaginary Supervisor knows the foster parent is close with the Imaginary Administrator and does little to nothing. If the Supervisor says anything at all (and this is in doubt) nothing happens. Her resistance to wrong was like light through a pane of clear glass. She may have been invisible.
So the Social Worker writes an email to the Administrator. She outlines the concerns she has about the home and the foster parent.
Now mind you, there are definite problems with the home. There are problems with the foster parent. And the Social Worker decides to keep the email. She will later show it to anyone who asks.
Now in this tragic foster home lived a convicted felon. This criminal was the father of a child who lived with the foster parent and the Toddler. However, the felon is not supposed to live in the home but everyone sort of turns a blind eye and all seems well.
The administrator knows something is up, and she’s no dummy. So she decides to protect herself, in an imaginary way.
The Administrator extracts a signed piece of paper from the foster mother. The paper says that she understands the felon and father of her child cannot live in her home.
The foster mother knows this is against the rules. They both know this is just a piece of paper. The Imaginary Administrator will take measures to insure that the evil auditors find nothing wrong if they should ever ask questions. And they never do.
Oddly, the home is strange and has padlocks on the doors and cameras in the halls. This is against foster care regulation but nobody from the agency cares about this. The position from the agency is they had no idea. They never saw what was there as they carefully went through the home.
Both the Imaginary CEO and the Administrator swear the Administrator has visited the home twice in February, but the small house is so gigantic, so complicated, that she and more than one other social worker have somehow missed 3 padlocked doors and cameras in the hallway! It must be evil magic.
The Social Worker quickly realizes that nothing is being done to correct the dangers in this bad home. She does not want to be held accountable if something happens to the toddler.
This time she goes directly to the Administrator, face to face, mano y mano…. And so the single rarest thing known to happen in social work takes place.
They have a meeting!
The Social Worker looks the Administrator in the eye and very deliberately speaks. “The house and the foster parent are not up to standards!” She says. “It is unsafe. The foster parent is nuts!” She cries. “This cannot go on.”
The administrator, full of wisdom, nods with understanding and appears to be considering options. Why yes, this is indeed a difficult situation. Action must be taken to protect the agency.
Now the Administrator knows the agency has been on hold for months because they have refused to pay back money that was stolen (questionably spent) from the county. After two years of prevarication the evil county is insisting they get their money back! Of all the gall!
How dare they!
There is a lesson here. If a mere peasant like you or I had stolen from a cash register, lets’ say, $20 from 7/11 or JC Penny, we would go to jail. But with foster agencies, if you are likely complicit in stealing a quarter million from the county, charging things for home and pleasure from company credit cards, as if it’s your own personal fortune, and unable to document how or where much of the money was spent… well, after a few years the county insists you pay it back interest free – no harm no foul. Kind of cool huh?
But, back to our fairy tale…
The forlorn agency is in trouble, deep trouble. They have been on hold a long time and have watched their business tank into the ground. The CEO laments;
“We are dying on the vine! What shall we do?”
They are not allowed to place any foster children into their homes. They are not allowed to make money! It is all he can do to breath.
The CEO cries and shakes his fists to the political heavens. He tears his hair and rents his clothes. He curses those who would do him harm. They are all against him.
Yet with tears in his eyes he brags to his loyal retainers that one county Supervisor is on their side, he says he will help, but the fool has been too slow to act! He has such contempt for these Supervisors, but this time he needs them.
And worse, the Agency must make a large payment to back the county off, to lift the evil hold. But alas, they don’t have the money.
You see, they have already given much of the money to themselves as a bonus and a raise in salary. This was a reward for all their hard work. It is only fair he thinks, he has done so much! What would be the fate of these children without him? How could he make a living?
He curses the fates that led the agency astray. What more could he have done? If only they would leave him be. “The fault is theirs!” He cries. “It is theirs…”
So the Imaginary CEO and Imaginary Administrator are desperate and in no mood to decertify another foster home and lose even more money and revenue.
Even if the home stinks, even if the foster parent has a criminal record and a substantiated report of abuse. Even if it was right was the right thing to do.
And much later the CEO tells anyone who listens that this home is no different from half the other foster homes in the county.
“Lots of foster parents have convictions.” He shouts to all who would listen. “Don’t you understand, it’s the county who is the criminal. If only you had done your job!”
So the Administrator dreams up with a solution, an imaginary solution. The answer is wonderful for all (except for the Tragic Toddler). The solution by the Administrator keeps the toddler in the favored home. The bed shall still earn money.
Home safety will be considered on another day when the fates are more aligned with the agencies interests. Her idea is wonderful and she passes the plan on to her subordinates.
Besides, she reasons, the favored foster parent is set to adopt the child soon, at which point the problem will go away. (Well at least for the agency but unfortunately not for the toddler).
And this dear listener is the ingenious solution from the Imaginary Administrator:
For now on, the Agency Social Worker shall only visit the toddler at the Agency Office, instead of personally visiting and checking the foster home for any problems.
Yes, that will solve everything!
The foster parent will bring the toddler to the agency! They can now pretend there is no home! The Administrator’s joy is without bounds. The inspiration for such glad tidings could only be a gift from the Gods.
See no evil, hear no evil, and therefore, speak no fraud. We shall all be protected!
Dante writes about a special place in hell for hypocrites and those who do nothing during times of moral crisis. The fates are now sorely tempted, and shall have their revenge.
Who but the Gods truly know what is in the heart of someone when they use a hammer to free a toddler whose head is stuck in a bed frame? Such a thing is unimaginable to mere mortals, as is the reason such a thing happens. And it happens to a little Angel.
In the end, one can only describe. And so there is a failure and death, perhaps even murder. There is a failure at every level.
There is the failure of the County Social Worker who barely visited and never expressed any concerns. Where was she? What did she do?
There is the incompetence of the Foster Care Social Worker who saw what a disaster the home was, the pit bulls, the cluttered yard with the wrecked car, and thought it was enough to simply report this to superiors and write an email so she would be covered.
And though she knew right and wrong, she took the easy way out and acquiesced to minimal visits and later visits at the office so she wouldn’t have to report on the home which was the Administrator’s intention. The Foster Care Social Worker was a very, very, busy person, with many, many jobs. We all have to make a living, right?
There was the huge letdown by the Agency Supervisor who did absolutely nothing. Whose principle concern was to never challenge her boss. She protests so little because she likes her job and must ingratiate herself with the ruling powers as was her custom.
“It’s not my fault.” She cries. “The case was only transferred for a month or two!” Oh If only she had had more time than several weeks! The precious toddler would still be alive!
The failure and negligence continued with the imaginary Administrator who didn’t want to upset the balance, who liked the terrible foster parent and had personally brought her over to the agency.
She didn’t want to lose money, and thus found a solution, one that like everything else with this fairy tale was cursed from the beginning.
Her solution pathetic dishonest; she lied as she was want to do; and assumed a piece of paper with a signature that she knew was meaningless would be enough to keep her and the agency covered if anything bad happened to the baby.
And up the food chain was the CEO, whose malfeasance was the antecedent of these events. Who set the example that would be the first domino to fall which eventually led to the death of the Imaginary Toddler.
Whose greed colored the tone that United the entire agency and influenced workers who would stay quiet, and keep in line with whatever he said was the truth, which they would if they knew what was good for them. Oh it’s good to be the CEO!
In the end it is about him, always about him. The bucks stopped inside his desk. The agency United under him was his agency. It is his money. It is his all-important prestige in the community. The Board of Directors served at his leisure. They obeyed his rules. Oh it is good to be the CEO!
The CEO is angry. It is horribly wrong for anyone to dare cast aspersions! They must have a hidden agenda. As always, it was their fault, whoever “they” are.
“Are you blind? Can’t you see?” He asks. “I have done nothing.”
The blame is theirs: Never his: It wasn’t his hand on the hammer that pounded the baby, he just allowed the person to be a foster parent.
“Who are you to cast the first stone? Anyways it is your fault.”
Asks the CEO, “The County was supposed to check the house, why didn’t they do their job? It is their fault. Anyway we will still be around, so don’t worry about us. I can consult! There are still so many children to save.”
The CEO cannot help himself; he keeps talking to anyone who will listen. The fault was with the bureaucrats and their politician stooges.
Or the fault lay with the politicians who supported him when times were good and whose support was crucial, and helped him stay in business during that whole mess with the missing money.
And what of the politicians who helped lift the hold when the Agency was down and out. They helped him avoid meaningful consequences when hundreds of thousands was stolen, err I mean questionably spent.
And finally, we come to the CEO’s hand-picked Board of Directors;
The people who rubber stamped his wishes, and who did as they were told. Who got whatever deals they received from the endeavor and proudly served their community, but mostly themselves.
Who believed the gravy train would always continue. And they reveled in the important board meetings with talks of millions of dollars, and included perks.
It was so exciting, so different from their daily lives. They were players – they were important! This was big business! They deserved this.
So in the end all of these factors United to bring about the horrible death of this toddler, who despite being an innocent Angel, was cursed since the day she was born. We know not why.
And when the Imaginary Foster Parent grabbed a very real hammer, it was almost as if the road had been paved for her, only the intentions were not so good, they were paved with dollars and vanity, and were to our United community’s everlasting shame.
May V find the peace she never did in life. Bless you child, you have not sinned and did not deserve your fate. You will not be forgotten. If only…
We can only pray.
THE END
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
Joshua Allen Online 