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CHILD ABUSE, FAMILY DYSFUNCTION, ADDICTION... 1/15/2009 12:09:55 PM
Newspaper headlines remind the author of more than thirty years dealing with family crisis. When I opened to the front page of my local newspaper the other day, the headlines screamed at me: BOY DIES AFTER SEVERE BEATING!
Subsequent days follow with more headlines: OFFICIALS WERE WARNED, CPS IS INVESTIGATED, and finally, on the front page of the Local & State section, a lesser headline: IF OUTRAGE FADES AGAIN, KIDS WILL KEEP DYING.
All of this is a reminder of the familiar patterns of my life, back when I was a social worker with Child Welfare Services in this Central Valley city. Unfortunately, child abuse is a fact of life…No matter how much awareness is out there, it continues, perpetuated by the societal elements that help to create this family dynamic.
Sadly, even diligent social workers are unable to prevent some of these tragedies. A system of intervention exists within a framework of laws which control the degree of “invasion” that bureaucracies can bring to the family. Parents are protected by certain rights and social workers are required to follow the rules.
That said, I continue to mourn, along with all the others, and remember the sleepless nights that plagued me during my years in the trenches. In the early years of the Millennium, I retired from the county position – and subsequently took on another with a private agency, one that continued with the same population, but with less direct involvement in “intervention” – and at the same time, I penned the first of my five novels. In “An Accidental Life” and “Miles to Go,” I revisit the life of the social worker, highlighting the day-to-day angst of those who chose that profession, and thus, in some ways, telieved some of my ongoing stress through the catharsis granted to the writer.
An exploration of family dysfunction, child abuse, drug addiction and more pepper the pages of these tomes, while humanizing these issues through real-life characterizations of those who deal with family tragedy on a regular basis.
Through my catharsis, I was able to distance myself slightly from these events…But then a new headline grips me with its fresh pain, and I’m reeling backwards in time, caught up in the fray once again…
