Here's a sad case that's here in Washington. The lady moved several times and public health instead of CPS went out to see her. Sad.
The audio link:
http://www.kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=8052
Child Abuse, the Community, and the Government
A Kent woman was found passed out in her apartment, and two of her three children were dead from malnutrition and dehydration. Child Protective Services, which had a file on the mother, is looking into the case to see what happened and if anything was mishandled. Meanwhile, neighbors of the woman said they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. As tragic as they are, we hear about terrible cases of child abuse and neglect every so often. Then fingers start pointing, and promises are made to fix whatever problems exist in the system to ensure this doesn't happen again. But how can we fix a system with chronically overworked case workers? How can we fix a system that depends on the watchful eyes of neighbors and friends to report possible neglect and abuse?