[aloha2u]

Hi, I am a social worker by profession and live in a state where Human Services contracts family services to private agencies and the state caseworkers oversee the case and report the findings to the court. I am a worker who does the 1:1 family counseling and I must submit a report to the state worker every quarter on how the family is progressing. The state worker, in turn, uses my information to write his/her report to the court. Understand, I am not the 'all powerful' here. The state worker identifies the goals and pays me for my services. If I do not follow their lead, the referals are given to someone else or another agency, and the whole system is quite political. That being explained, I would like to share my opinions:

I agree that the system is very corrupt. If a state worker assigned to a case has a 'problem' with a birthparent, they can make their life a living hell. Everything is relative, everything can be slanted to suit someone's desired outcome, and human nature can be an ugly thing. Two recent examples of this that I can attest to first hand:
1. Single mother, recovering Meth addict, has four children in foster care. She does not get child support from her ex, his rights have been terminated already for drugs. She works full time, is garnished for repayment to the state for the children's care, and lives in a tiny one bedroom efficiency apartment. The client does well, remains clean, and all professional parties excluding the state worker believe the kids should return home. The worker advises the court that visitation canNOT occur because the children have no place to sleep in the apartment. So the mother must find a 3-4 bedroom home first, which is big money considering she is getting her wages garnished, not receiving any state assistance bc the children do not live with her, nor can she qualify for housing assistance due to waiting list and that the children are not living with her. Well, she does it and finds a house to rent and visits slowly begin. Then the worker decides that the children's care is not being supported fully by the mother, so she is told she must take the four children to all Dr. appts, counseling appts, while still working full time, participating in individual therapy w/ two agencies, family therapy and sometimes participating in the children's individual therapy sessions, dropping random UAs at a moments notice. Occasionally she messes up and misses something and this 'proves' that she isn't yet ready to have the visitation schedule increased. Well, this goes on for several months, to the point where her job is in jeopardy from all the missed hours, her finances are spread paper thin from renting this large house for just 1 weekend per month visits. Luckily the state appointed attorney goes on maternity leave and is replaced by a vigorous young attorney, who throws such a fit the kids are sent home immediately. Happy ending of sorts but how could this have been different if someone didn't throw a fit????? All because one state worker had an ego problem and the rest of us could disagree but it didn't mean squat.
2. A foster family has long term custody of a foster girl, who is diagnosed w/ RAD, has a history of being sexually manipulative to either get what she wants in lieu of sexual behaviors or to blackmail someone into giving in to what she wants, etc etc etc. She calls her state worker one morning, and tells her they all have to have a meeting ASAP. The meeting happens and she tells us all that the foster dad 'felt her up in the night' (not her words but my cleaner version) and he needs to just knock it off. Well, I wasn't there to dispute whether this man took advantage of her thinking he could get by with something bc she is a known liar, or if she is setting this up to be another manipulation game nor could doctors at a physical exam. Her word vs. his. So the police become involved, won't even go past an interview because of the WHOLE PICTURE. The state agency responds by moving the girl, putting her in victim's therapy, and the foster family is crucified.
3. A mom and stepdad call to get voluntary services for the teen aged son that they just won custody of from the bio dad. The son has been being very aggessive to the younger sister. The state has no money for voluntary services so they are denied and refered to private therapy. The case is re-referred to the state agency by the private therapy clinic after the family reports a huge fight in which the stepdad has picked the teen boy up and thrown him across the room, resulting in bruising and a sprained arm. The whole story is that the mom came home to the son beating up the daughter, who is 8. The mom steps in, so the son begins beating her. The stepdad walks in and grabs the boy and tosses him to the floor to help his wife. The state removes the teen boy, classifies the injuries as physical abuse by the stepdad, and subsequently places the boy back into the biodad's custody, with full services provided by the state.

These are three examples that I know of personally that occured on my caseload since Jan or Feb of this year. That does not include the less bizarre ones nor those I hear about in the office. The politics of the 'system' are sickening and I believe that is not just locally but a nationwide problem.

I also wanted to clarify to the person who mentioned that most of the secondary workers like me come from NONprofit agencies. I do hope you realize that being NONprofit makes us even more competive to keep a substantial, profit margin. Look at the fees that adoption agencies charge. Aren't the for profit and non profit ones about the same? I personally think that NONprofit is for the workers who know we won't get paid much (LOL!)

Just my 2c for what it is worth.