Blogs by Deborah K. Frontiera
Fighting CPS
9/22/2013 9:48:03 AM
The purpose of this blog is to provide updates on some of the cases I reported in my book (Fighting CPS: Guilty Until Proven Innocent of Child Protective Services Charges ISBN 9-780-9800061-6-2) that had not been resolved when the book went to press, and to report other cases where CPS is not working up to par. I’d also like to hear about cases in which Child Protective Services did the right thing so those cases can serve as examples of what should be done. Occasionally, I will report helpful tips and web sites with advice on fighting CPS. To comment on this blog, or to tell your story, email Deborah Frontiera at frontiera.fightingcps.deborah.gmail.com
The next post will be on Oct. 14, 2013
Good News about a Successful Crisis Nursery Program
An internet search turned up the following blog post by Daniel Walters (posted on Aug. 22, 2013). I’ve selected some of the passages and urge readers to search out the name, Daniel Walters, to find his blog and read the entire story. His would be a good blog to monitor and read regularly. Recall my post on Jan. 28, 2013, where Cheryl Carlson referred the success of Crisis Nursery programs and the necessity of setting up more such programs.
“How CPS and the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery Fight Child Abuse At Its Root”
[Bialkowsky, a police officer, was dumbstruck by a particularly gruesome child abuse case he was called upon to investigate in which a child died. He had a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son at the time and felt he had to do something.] . . .
Much of the focus over stopping these sorts of tragedies has been about reporting child abuse, so children can be removed from dangerous situations. But that’s far from an ideal solution. Just the very act of yanking children away from their families and placing them into foster care can be damaging, no matter how bad their situation and how great their foster parents are.
An Inlander investigation in 2011 found a foster care system battered by budget cuts, [original blog has a link here to find the report] bureaucracy, overloaded caseworkers and far too few foster parents. Recent years have shown improvements — in Washington the numbers of complaints to the Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman have decreased, and in Idaho the legislature increased its payments to foster parents this year, but even Child Protective Services will tell you that placing children in foster care can be damaging.
“I don’t think the state does a very good job raising children,” says Nicole LaBelle, Deputy Regional Administrator of Spokane’s Department of Social and Health Services office. “We don’t want to place children in foster care and disrupt everything that they’ve known.”
In Bialkowsky’s case, he decided to focus on the root causes. The risk for abuse skyrockets when parents are stressed and don’t have a way to deal with that stress. So five years after [the child’s] death, he opened Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.
Stressed, low-income parents had a place to drop off their children when they were overwhelmed. Because abuse is so closely linked to parents fighting stress on multiple fronts, one of the most effective ways to prevent abuse is to provide relief for those parents.
“We are the only facility that I know of in our area that deals with prevention,” Bialkowsky says. “Once the abuse takes place, the child is scarred for life.”
This July, thanks to an increase in summer staff, the nursery served a record 458 kids.
“We have served over 75,000 children in the 26 years we’ve been in operation… I couldn’t tell you how many child abuse incidences — or perhaps deaths — we’ve prevented,” Bialkowsky says. “But I know we’ve had a strong impact on many, many thousands.”
At CPS, too, the focus continues to shift toward helping troubled parents rather than placing children in foster care.
This January, Spokane will be one of only three cities in the state of Washington to launch Family Assessment Response, a program that’s seen huge successes in Minnesota and New York. It will start in two of the county’s most impoverished neighborhoods, West Central and Hillyard. Federal dollars that normally would have gone to foster care can now be used to aid troubled families. Instead of threatening to remove their children, CPS would team up with the family, get them what they need, and teach them to become better parents.
This author applauds blogger Daniel Walters (for his work finding this source and his blog) and the people who began and continue to run this crisis nursery and the Spokane program. Keep up the good work!
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