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
On MLK Hospital and DCFS: Our Foster Children Gently Weep
The Business of Child Abuse
Article first published as On MLK Hospital and DCFS: Our Foster Children Gently Weep on Technorati.
On MLK Hospital and DCFS: Our Foster Children Gently Weep.
The Business of Child Abuse
By Joshua Allen
As an amalgamation of failed policies, roads to nowhere, and well-meaning strategies that lead to disappointment and letdown, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) have few equals in obfuscation and futility.
About the only thing the author can reference of similar ineptitude and human damage would be the recent closure of Martin Luther King County Hospital (MLK) which required a complete closure and a several year “do over,” before a reopening could be considered. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/uc-regents-approve-partnership-with-la-county-to-reopen-king-hospital.html
One of the requirements by UCLA and other entities stipulated before discussions began to reopen this very necessary hospital was a restriction against political and Board of Supervisor interference to prevent a repetition of the sustained decrepit conditions that existed for decades.
A comparison between DCFS and MLK Hospital is not a comparison of apples and oranges. Actually, there are many similarities. Both entities suffered from years of neglect. And both organizations were damaged by racial, community and government political interference that frequently clashed with the stated goals of meeting the best needs of clients and patients.
Both organizations endured a multitude of directors that changed so frequently, that tenure of more than a couple years, was seen as a stabilizing factor. Directors of both organizations were pushed out frequently, mostly for political reasons, and often left under a cloud of whispered, unproven allegations that seemed to disappear once the new leader was installed.
Along with frequent changes in leadership, both DCFS and MLK cynically imposed policies which were changed and altered, added and added again according to the political flavor of the moment, and often in reaction to some horrific incident involving death, mayhem, criminality, stupidity and a dash of indifference since victims had little voice and even less influence within the electorate.
MLK Hospital (which had a nasty nickname of “Killer King”) was eventually shut down and emptied since reform was no longer seen as a viable alternative. Competent employees were transferred to other locations within the county. Others found new lines of work, or left the area to work their magic and expertise within more appreciative confines.
Both organizations had huge difficulties in retaining highly trained personnel since both destinations were seen by their best workers as a proving ground or stepping stone towards a more lucrative and positive career choice after doing ones time in the trenches.
Currently, and left in its wake at DCFS as a result of this constant turnover of the well trained and educated personnel, are numbers of mediocre, unambitious, and incompetents who seem to have little hope of establishing themselves in an equal position at another location.
Allowing for the noble and admirable subset of quality, dedicated workers who truly want to be at DCFS, morale and quality of care suffer. Indeed, conditions and the nature of their work at DCFS is so difficult, they have an employee turnover rate that reminds one of a tour of duty.
One way DCFS has dealt with the impossible job of caring for so many abused and neglected children and perceived diminution of quality (if it ever really existed) was to reduce by almost 2 thirds the amount of abused and neglected children the County was willing to care for.
At the same time, the county maintains a budget very close to those tax dollars used and spent when placement into foster care was at its highest almost a decade ago. In other words, while the amount of children placed into foster care by DCFS has decreased by more than 2 thirds during the past decade, the budget in caring for those children has remained mostly the same. The obvious questions then, are abused children much better off? Are they safer?
The County will argue that programs such as Family Preservation and Wrap Around Services which have at its focus keeping families intact has allowed this huge decrease in numbers of children placed into foster care, and ensure a greater amount of children are safer and better cared for.
One can only pray. But I have a question. Do you really believe that abused and neglected children in Los Angeles County are better off than they were a decade ago? And if we can’t be perfect, shouldn’t we at least be good?
Joshua Allen
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.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.”
On the High Rates of Abuse in Foster Care: “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.” *
More Than a Statistic
On The High Rate of Abuse in Foster Care: “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics *
By Joshua Allen
The Business of Child Abuse
Article first published as <a href=’http://technorati.com/politics/article/on-the-high-rates-of-abuse/‘>On the High Rates of Abuse in Foster Care: “Lies, Damn lies, and Statistics.” on Technorati.
Foster Care is full of statistics – statistics which are used to prove just about anything. Unfortunately, many programs and ideas the author supports are backed by statistical methods and ‘facts,’ which are flawed and manipulative.
This is a tricky issue. For example, what happens when flawed statistics are used towards a greater good? Means justifying the end and all that…
The author is in favor of providing tax money so foster care, or more accurately, transitional living will be extended to abused and neglected teens until the age of 21 so they are “not thrown out in the street.” As the new laws supporters like to point out. http://www.cafosteringconnections.org/
Yet supporters fail to note there was always an option for the teens in California to stay in foster care up to 21 if their social worker requested an exemption, and importantly, if the teen cooperated by not using drugs, going to college or trade school and/or held a job. And this outcome is not especially rare.
Many teens refuse to do this, or don’t want to live under the restrictions present in a foster home and chose instead to leave the system. Many teens that are homeless have run away from numerous foster homes. Do not MISUNDERSTAND, this new law for additional funds for transitional housing is a wonderful thing! Those teens who want fewer restrictions while continuing to be aided by the system now have more options. It is a very good thing.
Another manipulated statistic is when we discuss the dubious rate of child abuse in foster care. Often this is done with the legitimate goal of encouraging greater supervision and regulation of foster parents, discouraging the government from placing abused children into foster care to begin with, or to be the catalyst towards the creation of further regulations to protect children.
Under these circumstances, the only loser may be truth or clarity, as opposed to the usual victim, the abused and neglected child.
Is this so bad? Hasn’t a ‘greater good’ been served? Or are we beginning to slip down the slope?
Accepted as fact by many, the statistic that children in foster care are abused at a much higher rate than the regular population is repeated so often as to be a cliché. Some even contend foster children are abused at a much higher rate than had these children remained in their abusive home. I don’t believe it.
So let us examine this “high rate” of abuse within foster care. We won’t quote statistics here because we contend that currently used stats and methodology are flawed, but conveniently so. And here is why.
Many agency foster homes in Los Angeles are visited, scrutinized, and examined almost weekly by a bevy of individuals that includes agency social workers, investigators, CSW’s, and other mandated reporters. All these monthly visits and examinations by mandated reporters will certainly drive up the number of allegations and statistics that we read about.
Think about it. How many allegations would be found if every home in Los Angeles was scrutinized weekly? I’d imagine mandated reporters would find a lot of stuff worth reporting. (It is important to note that not all foster homes are scrutinized weekly, especially county homes)
And it doesn’t end here. Let’s add birth parents. Birth parents make allegations against foster homes so often it is hard for a thoughtful investigator to separate the vindictive falsehood from the truth.
As witnessed by the author, a substantiated allegation which counts towards foster care abuse statistics, can include leaving a 16-year-old in the house alone for a couple of hours, driving a foster child without auto insurance, tying a scarf across the arms of a high-chair like a seat belt,(to protect the toddler from jumping out) and swatting an unruly foster child a single time on the rear. Uhh, by the way, don’t do these things – bad, very bad…
Do NOT MISUNDERSTAND my point and I cannot qualify this enough.
No apology for abuse in foster homes. Abuses occur, sometimes horrible abuses. But when you add the fatuous with the legitimate you get an inflated number that is not a true indication, and it is a number frequently manipulated.
Often, the agenda but not the methodology is one I agree with!
The same holds true for the Family Preservation program. There are stats on both sides of the issue. Rather then detaining children in foster care, Family Preservation seeks to keep the family intact through counseling and other beneficial case management options. But how does one measure outcomes? This is one way. http://www.nccpr.org/reports/01SAFETY.pdf A selective glance shows a bevy of stats demonstrating superior outcomes.
However, as practiced in Los Angeles, Family Preservation consists of contract “para professionals,” visiting at ‘risk homes,’ a couple times a month, counseling the family and providing referrals that are often ineffective. As suggested by one writer, it is indeed a “meager effort.” And since many of these at risk children wouldn’t have been detained in the first place, how does one begin to measure outcomes in a non biased way?
The question therefore is not if Family Preservation is a good idea, but rather, is it being properly implemented here in Los Angeles County? Is this money well spent? A wise program needs more than good intentions, especially with non-profits-for- profit circling like sharks to a wounded child.
Foster care is a lonely and a horrible experience despite good work and nurturing from workers and loving foster parents who really get very little credit but do some of the most important work we can think of.
So just a request; don’t lie to us. Please.
Joshuaallenonline.com
Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com
On Child Abuse, Torture and the Audacity of Secrecy
Article first published as <a href=’http://technorati.com/politics/article/on-child-abuse-torture-and-the/‘>On Child Abuse, Torture and the Audacity of Secrecy on Technorati.
On Child Abuse, Torture and the Audacity of Secrecy
By Joshua Allen
The Business of Child Abuse
The most recent expose in the LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-abuse-20101029,0,7820535.story story regarding the horrifying circumstances of rape and torture of a child that should instead have been rescued by a DCFS social worker can only be described as a nightmare of incompetence and arrogance. That we learn of this episode only because of the unmitigated gall of the worker contesting her mild suspension is something we can only react to with disgust.
Our unsaid fear of course is the number of tortured children we do not know about – Tortured children whose story remains secret, as the worker wasn’t dumb or arrogant enough to contest a mild suspension. If the workers union SEIU contests this particular suspension, what won’t they contest?
The culprit Rocio La Voie had clearly moved on but now she is a pariah. Well-deserved in the writers opinion, and unlike for example, the workers who may have erred with Jorge Tarin, the teen who killed himself after being interviewed by different DCFS workers who were hobbled by a lack of available information.
We ask, what else had Ms. La Voie, or for that matter other DCFS officials, ignored that we know nothing about? At what point does such gross incompetence become more than an internal issue?
On the opposite end, how many children will now be saved because of this Times article? How many DCFS workers will put in that much more effort with the knowledge that such gross incompetence leading to such horrible circumstances won’t be covered up. By lying through omission to supposedly protect itself and a very few individuals, DCFS shoots themselves (and us) in the foot.
There really is no reason for such lack of transparency. Our police force, for example, is a much better organization because of this transparency. They wouldn’t dream of covering this stuff up or allowing a union to dictate so much policy. We wouldn;t stand for it.
DCFS is a huge organization that is accustomed to unjustified governmental secrecy that harkens back to the 50’s. We know best, now move along….
And we must ask why are there basically only one or two reporters in our city covering a multibillion dollar child abuse industry? An industry with a budget similar to that of all but the largest police force that could only fantasize about such self-serving secrecy.
Disingenuously hide behind secrecy and confidentiality laws and this is what you get, a child tortured and raped for years and no lesson learned until somebody was dumb enough to contest the loss of two weeks pay, which for some reason, put the information in the public domain.
We are all disgusted.
Joshua Allen Online 
