They are terrible. It's interesting that you've interpreted my comments as being positive. I'm not gonna argue specifics.

No, dude. They just forgot to tell you. There was no conspiracy.

Same

Read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down! It will get you to the hesrt of things. Then read The Body Keeps Score (apparently? I haven't read it LMAO)

I'm not the best person to ask, I don't have formal.SW training. Kind of a deep end of the pool experience, was DCYF. Then again nothing can prepare you for CPS. When I was interviewing for other jobs, I nearly giggled when they asked about interpersonal challenges or ethical dilemmas. After 2 years in CW you can eat that before breakfast unphased. No job will ever be challenging again!

These days I'm just another quitter. But I'll pass it on!

You are in rare company. Me, too!

And like I'm kind of sorry, I know that was harsh, but if you're final year you need a reality check. I hope you're good because you're very needed.

Because they have no power over the agency they work for. And neither will you, when you get there. Keeping this righteous attitude will kill you working in that system.

Yes, a worker has to track down the family and evaluate the situation. Yes that yakes time. Yes everyone deserves to have working gours and non qorking hours. Would you personally like to pay the taxes for 24/7 child welfare coverage? What are we supposed to do, take away a child with no evidence and no investigation just because an intern says so? For how long? Where do we put them? Who says when they can go back? When does the judge have an opening to review the statement? Can we take anyone's children? What if the kid is just mad and knows the system well enough to know that all they have to say is "I don't feel safe" and their parent will be punished? Maybe you could be the one to pick them up from school and bring them home without notice? Always have an empty room? Easy enough.

Interesting! I haven't had that experience before, I didn't know a "social work hold" existed (and your local dcyf probably doesn't realize either-- don't tell them!) Please know that no one wants this. I had a nonverbal autistic child who had been in my care for over 5 years (I visit them now that I'm out.) Once an ER staff asked "do you realize you have a child sitting here in the ER?!?" It was horrific for me. Of course I knew. I'd been acting as that child's legal guardian for years. I was the closest thing they had to family in the world. Of course I was doing everything, frantically, calling everywhere that existed. The idea that someone somehow thought I didn't care.... it was actually the beginning of the end of my career there. I couldn't bear it. A year before I left.

It's incredibly easy 😂 I work like 2 hours a day and everyone is Super Impressed. I think every job from now on will be easy.

Thank you for being a foster parent. We need you so badly.

Few things meant as much to me as a worker as when I saw that the foster parents saw what I was going through. I could never be a FP and have sooooooo much respect for you all. I couldn't have the trauma in my home. You're amazing! Every once in a while my favorite foster parents would say just what you said now: I see you! It's a lot! We are in this together! I loved them for it. Give them a card, give them art by the kids. Even now, I have pictures and letters from my kids on my fridge. Anything to make it real, to confirm they did the right thing, and to show them how good the kids are doing, that's the endgame.

Also, please just take care of yourself and please be in therapy. More than anything, they need you to stick around.

Thanks <3

I actually talked about that in another comment. It's amazing MA has screwed it up so bad. Maybe there's no right way to do it.

CASA are well intentioned people who rarely have the life experience to judge families in trauma. They are generally wealthy retirees who have never experienced poverty. They receive minimal training. Studies show that cases with CASAs (as opposed to professional GALs) have lower rates of reunification, especially with families of color. Once a CASA told me he opposed reunification because the mother's "neighborhood was inappropriate."

It's not long enough. Parents cannot adequately correct the conditions within 12 months. Kids are returned to parents teetering on the brink of stability and the cycle repeats. One cannot overcome an addiction or a lifetime of trauma in one year.

Maybe? But what's the carrot or stick? You can mandate all you want in a B case (b for Before Court) but if things are really that bad, they're already too far gone. People will NEVER sign up to be involved with DCYF, for better or worse.

Have caseload standards. Have reasonable pay. Have empathetic supervisors. Have outside hires in administration. Have clinicians in the office. Have mandated time off after traumas.

Lol nobody can justify it. Everyone hates doing it. That's less about DCYF and more about the whole state. Any child with severe mental health issues is going to sit in the ER for weeks because there are no beds for kids anywhere. And they can only stay there if the hospital says they're a risk to themselves or others. Believe me, I've had the hospital kick kids out with nowhere to go after hours because they changed their mind and decided they're not a risk any more.

I'm in nonprofits now and watching the state make demands while giving no money no direction and now guidelines. It's absurd.

One time it was a teen parent in foster care and her foster parent said she wasn't caring for her baby, but it turned out they were misunderstanding what the dr had said. Another time the home was dirty but not to the point of being unsafe. Sometimes allegations will prove to have been untrue.

Vote democrat, and tell your reps DCYF is important to you

I know the amazing human of whom you speak. She's a miracle!

Manchester PD often fail to respond to DCYF. When they are called to assist they often ask if DCYF could please postpone the emergency. Often they don't show up at all. When they do, they make the situation way more traumatic than necessary.

The worst of MPD, though, is that they don't investigate child crimes if they don't think there's a win in it. I had a group of kids telling everyone super detailed stuff about what was done to them, but because they were very young, MPD refused to even interview them. Literally allowing child sex traffickers to wander loose. And giving these poor kids the impression that no one cares about what was done to them. They don't even bother to start collecting evidence if they think it won't get through to a conviction.

DCYF is 90% women.

Drugs magically disappearing would only change caseloads by 5%, maybe 10%-- eveb though well over half of cases involve substances in some way. People who use drugs to the extent that leads to their children being removed are using substances to escape serious trauma or mental health issues. Without drugs, they'd find another way to try to control their mind and environment that wouldn't be good for kids.

Once there was a case where I knew I had an acquaintance in common with a parent. I told my supervisor and got a different case instead. I didn't know them at all but it could have still been a conflict of interest.

They're not always wrong. But if you're doing things shitty enough that you need to scare your kid into not telling, how are you so sure your home is better?

Foster care is only for the most extreme of cases. And I never met a worker who didn't have the best of intentions and try their hardest. Why scare kids over something they probably won't ever have to worry about?

Regardless, the system does NOT want to take your kids. Ever. The system doesn't have a grudge against anyone (unless you keep having and losing kids over and over. Then we hate you.) The system does not want the strain, the workers do not want the paperwork or the late night or the court dates or the new case, the foster parents aren't making any money.... there is absolutely no motivation for anyone to "steal" your child.

Sometimes! Intake is really good at screening out the custody battle stuff and the revenge neighbor stuff. But I had one guy whose landlord kept accusing him of really serious stuff, but was just out to get him. That he was brandishing a weapon, screaming obscenities at the kids, passing out in the hall. When in reality the landlord had purposely brought in his own friends who were the ones who were actually passing out and screaming. They couldn't screen it out because the allegations were so serious. But every time I showed up at his door, it was never his fault. We had some good laughs. Especially after he won against his LL in small claims for stealing all his covid relief money.

Roommates! And living out of town. Manch gets scary when you take bad people's kids away. I won't live there ever again.

Never. I always removed when I had to, no matter what. It's just a matter of using the right words to make sure the court sees the same risk that you do.

I've felt morally wrong on multiple when I've been forced to remove a child from a good parent, though. And on each of those occasions, the court later backed me up (against my supervisors' decisions) and sent the kids home.