What is the purpose of terminating a parent's rights?
Can the same outcomes not be accomplished without legally wiping away a child's birth family?
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Biting my tongue
Fridays are always pretty slow in the office. Seems like a lot of people come in late or do all their traveling on Fridays. That leaves Scarlet and I begging people for jobs usually.
This morning I was able to go out with Clay. Clay is actually in our MSW program, but somehow got hired already at Sleepy County DFCS. I bow down to him for attending school full-time and working full-time...don't know how he does it!
We went out on an immediate (I'm finally learning the lingo!) Father had been arrested the might before for drug possession and someone had reported neglect of 6 month old. We initially thought no one was home, but I saw the blinds move as we were leaving (what am I becoming, lol?) This family had another precious baby...you know I had to pick him up. Home was a bit of a mess, but there was nothing horrible. Now for biting my tongue...evidently DFCS is against co-sleeping. This mom co-slept with her baby and Clay told her she would need to have a crib by his next visit.
After thinking it over, I can see DFCS requesting that a family gets a crib for naps during the day and stuff like that, but I can not ever see myself advising parents that co-sleeping in inherently dangerous and not to be done at all! I told Clay in the car that I knew families who co-slept and he looked at me like I had two heads and said "They don't know how dangerous that is?" Ugh! I looked in my manual to see if there was an official statement about co-sleeping, but could find none. I plan on asking a supervisor next week.
Today was also our field supervisor's last day, so a bunch of people from the office went out to eat. It was fun to sit and chat with everyone and get to know a few of the people I have never really worked with. I'll miss Leigh, but I know she'll be happy at her new job. Our new supervisor has not introduced herself to us or anything, but it's ok because Scarlet and I picked our own supervisor in the office!
The afternoon went by very slooowy. Scarlet admitted to me that she is thinking of getting out of her title program. A lot of my co-horts are having the government pay for school and getting a stipend and will pay it back by working at DFCS for at least 2 years. (awesome opportunity!) She feels as if DFCS takes away a lot of rights/dignity from their clients. She feels very, very uncomfortable with things like unannounced home visits (which I guess is a necessary evil) If I did work for DFCS I would definitely want to work in adoptions or family preservation. I can not see myself doing investigations at all!
This morning I was able to go out with Clay. Clay is actually in our MSW program, but somehow got hired already at Sleepy County DFCS. I bow down to him for attending school full-time and working full-time...don't know how he does it!
We went out on an immediate (I'm finally learning the lingo!) Father had been arrested the might before for drug possession and someone had reported neglect of 6 month old. We initially thought no one was home, but I saw the blinds move as we were leaving (what am I becoming, lol?) This family had another precious baby...you know I had to pick him up. Home was a bit of a mess, but there was nothing horrible. Now for biting my tongue...evidently DFCS is against co-sleeping. This mom co-slept with her baby and Clay told her she would need to have a crib by his next visit.
After thinking it over, I can see DFCS requesting that a family gets a crib for naps during the day and stuff like that, but I can not ever see myself advising parents that co-sleeping in inherently dangerous and not to be done at all! I told Clay in the car that I knew families who co-slept and he looked at me like I had two heads and said "They don't know how dangerous that is?" Ugh! I looked in my manual to see if there was an official statement about co-sleeping, but could find none. I plan on asking a supervisor next week.
Today was also our field supervisor's last day, so a bunch of people from the office went out to eat. It was fun to sit and chat with everyone and get to know a few of the people I have never really worked with. I'll miss Leigh, but I know she'll be happy at her new job. Our new supervisor has not introduced herself to us or anything, but it's ok because Scarlet and I picked our own supervisor in the office!
The afternoon went by very slooowy. Scarlet admitted to me that she is thinking of getting out of her title program. A lot of my co-horts are having the government pay for school and getting a stipend and will pay it back by working at DFCS for at least 2 years. (awesome opportunity!) She feels as if DFCS takes away a lot of rights/dignity from their clients. She feels very, very uncomfortable with things like unannounced home visits (which I guess is a necessary evil) If I did work for DFCS I would definitely want to work in adoptions or family preservation. I can not see myself doing investigations at all!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Lunch & Learn
Thursday at DFCS was a rather fun day :) I documented a few cases and was then invited to ride along with the adoptions worker and the BSW intern, Lavinia, (who treats the MSW interns like we have no sense...sorry had to say it!) to a lunch and learn at a rather well known Christian adoption agency. The lunch was in the big city that's located about 45 minutes from Sleepy County.
Arriving at the agency, I was amazed by how nice it was compared to the DFCS office. I even thought to myself, now I could see myself working here! We were presented with a 9 minute short on adoption and how the agency plays a role. They then served us a delicious lunch. The lunch & learn was the agencies attempt to work with DFCS counties in their area to place older foster children in families willing to adopt. There may have been around 10 counties in attendance. The agency then presented all their families who were open to adoption older children to us and we were supposed matched children with the families. It was quite an experience! I was especially touched by an older couple with a son in college. They wanted to adopt a 14-17 year old girl and help her have the opportunity to go to college. There are so many services for children in foster care to help them if they make it to college, but so many don't even get that chance.
One thing that struck me as weird: when picking race some of the families marked biracial, but not full AA. I don't really understand what the difference is. If a family is thinking they might get a lighter colored child..that might not be the case. I know biracial child who look full AA and I know full AA people who look like they could be biracial.
After our lunch and learn we went out on a few home-visits. We visited a 16 yo who is being adopted (yay!) and her 1 year old foster brother. Foster mom had quite a few kids in care, not sure how many because they weren't all there. I got to pick up the little baby and I was in love! He was so precious, I could have just taken him home.
We then had to pick up a girl for a visit with her mom. I've seen this young girl around the town: at court, been with another worker who transported her, etc and I had always thought she was a sweet teen. I learned her back story Thurs. and found out she is in foster care for DV against some of her family. Her mom wanted to speak with us alone when we dropped her off. She told Liz (adoption worker, she also has a few family preservation cases) that she was not interested in obtaining counseling services. Basically, mom told DFCS she had a certain personality disorder and DFCS put counseling and following the recommendations of the counselor in the case plan. Her daughter is in DFCS custody because she ran away from her incarceration facility (I also learned that when that happens, DFCS can take custody and all charges are dropped) Her mom felt that she shouldn't have to do all the counseling when her daughter was the one with the problem. She said she would attend family counseling and things like that, but was not interested in individual. I could definitely understand her point. I'll be interested to see how that works out though, since it is part of her case plan for her daughter to come home.
Arriving at the agency, I was amazed by how nice it was compared to the DFCS office. I even thought to myself, now I could see myself working here! We were presented with a 9 minute short on adoption and how the agency plays a role. They then served us a delicious lunch. The lunch & learn was the agencies attempt to work with DFCS counties in their area to place older foster children in families willing to adopt. There may have been around 10 counties in attendance. The agency then presented all their families who were open to adoption older children to us and we were supposed matched children with the families. It was quite an experience! I was especially touched by an older couple with a son in college. They wanted to adopt a 14-17 year old girl and help her have the opportunity to go to college. There are so many services for children in foster care to help them if they make it to college, but so many don't even get that chance.
One thing that struck me as weird: when picking race some of the families marked biracial, but not full AA. I don't really understand what the difference is. If a family is thinking they might get a lighter colored child..that might not be the case. I know biracial child who look full AA and I know full AA people who look like they could be biracial.
After our lunch and learn we went out on a few home-visits. We visited a 16 yo who is being adopted (yay!) and her 1 year old foster brother. Foster mom had quite a few kids in care, not sure how many because they weren't all there. I got to pick up the little baby and I was in love! He was so precious, I could have just taken him home.
We then had to pick up a girl for a visit with her mom. I've seen this young girl around the town: at court, been with another worker who transported her, etc and I had always thought she was a sweet teen. I learned her back story Thurs. and found out she is in foster care for DV against some of her family. Her mom wanted to speak with us alone when we dropped her off. She told Liz (adoption worker, she also has a few family preservation cases) that she was not interested in obtaining counseling services. Basically, mom told DFCS she had a certain personality disorder and DFCS put counseling and following the recommendations of the counselor in the case plan. Her daughter is in DFCS custody because she ran away from her incarceration facility (I also learned that when that happens, DFCS can take custody and all charges are dropped) Her mom felt that she shouldn't have to do all the counseling when her daughter was the one with the problem. She said she would attend family counseling and things like that, but was not interested in individual. I could definitely understand her point. I'll be interested to see how that works out though, since it is part of her case plan for her daughter to come home.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Mutiple Transitions: A Child's Point of View
We watched this video in my Adoption/Foster Care class and it was very moving for me and many others in class. It's a bit long (19 minutes) and you have to read most of it...but I think it captures so much.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Snow Day!!
The office closed at 3 yesterday afternoon. We didn't get much snow, but it was enough for us to close :)
This week was good. I'm enjoying my time with DFCS more and more. Scarlet & I are really good friends now, so the time passes quickly. The "real" social workers are used to having us around and have faith in our abilities now so we get to do more.
This week the foster care unit had "Filing Day" Let me tell you how fun that is! ...oh yeah, it's not! LOL.
Scarlet & I were also able to sit in on a family closing meeting. It was a mom with 5 kids. DFCS became involved because of DV and drug use. It was a happy meeting. The mom was really close to her current case manager and seemed like she was going to have a hard time with her case closing. Not something you might expect with DFCS. The meeting was a bit crazy because her 4 youngest (ages 4 & under) were there and they were wild!
It was interesting to see all her agency workers helping her to come up with support plans and plans in case she relapsed. It's good in theory, but I do wonder how much these things help when things do get bad.
I've been busy with a lot of documentation from shadowing on visits, follow up calls to schools, doctors, etc (asking them to fax records, asking them if we could please get the records we asked for 1 month ago, etc), collateral phone calls...
I'm feeling better about DFCS and possibly working for them after graduation (thanks SocialWrk24/7). I guess I have good days and bad.
This week was good. I'm enjoying my time with DFCS more and more. Scarlet & I are really good friends now, so the time passes quickly. The "real" social workers are used to having us around and have faith in our abilities now so we get to do more.
This week the foster care unit had "Filing Day" Let me tell you how fun that is! ...oh yeah, it's not! LOL.
Scarlet & I were also able to sit in on a family closing meeting. It was a mom with 5 kids. DFCS became involved because of DV and drug use. It was a happy meeting. The mom was really close to her current case manager and seemed like she was going to have a hard time with her case closing. Not something you might expect with DFCS. The meeting was a bit crazy because her 4 youngest (ages 4 & under) were there and they were wild!
It was interesting to see all her agency workers helping her to come up with support plans and plans in case she relapsed. It's good in theory, but I do wonder how much these things help when things do get bad.
I've been busy with a lot of documentation from shadowing on visits, follow up calls to schools, doctors, etc (asking them to fax records, asking them if we could please get the records we asked for 1 month ago, etc), collateral phone calls...
I'm feeling better about DFCS and possibly working for them after graduation (thanks SocialWrk24/7). I guess I have good days and bad.
Monday, February 8, 2010
It's a little awkward
...when one of your classmates is a receptionist in your therapist's office...especially when she calls you about your appointment. He had already told me someone from my school worked in his office and asked if I was ok with that and I told him yes. I had no idea who it was until she stopped me in the hallway today and told me not to worry...and then she calls me this afternoon! I'm sure I made her feel uncomfortable, because when she said her name I greeted her like it was a personal phone call. She stumbled a little and proceeded in a professional fashion...oops on my part!
I also found out today that our field supervisor is leaving; she was offered a job at our university's counseling center. We're seeing the high turn over rate first hand! Not sure what they will do with us, she's one of the few MSWs in Sleepy County. I'm a little anxious to see who we'll be working with now. The only two other MSWs I know of are both case managers and fairly new...so we'll see.
I also found out today that our field supervisor is leaving; she was offered a job at our university's counseling center. We're seeing the high turn over rate first hand! Not sure what they will do with us, she's one of the few MSWs in Sleepy County. I'm a little anxious to see who we'll be working with now. The only two other MSWs I know of are both case managers and fairly new...so we'll see.
Friday, February 5, 2010
DFCS is taking over my life
...at least I feel like it is.
Things have been going well in Sleepy County. From my seminar class, I've learned that our counties is one of the best in terms of internships. A lot of other people in DFCS aren't doing much or the case managers don't seem to want interns coming along.
The other girl from my class, Scarlet, and I have become pretty good friends this semester. We share a little office, so I guess we were forced to become friends!
Some highlights
- Hmong family. Teacher reported a little boy said his dad had beat his mom with a vacuum cleaner. The case came into Gigi (who is becoming my favorite case manager!). The family had 8 kids (5 in elementary school, 2 in middle, 1 at home) Scarlet went with Gigi to document the younger kids' interviews and I went to the middle school.
I was very impressed by Gigi's skills. She made the kids very comfortable, chatted it up like they were old friends, and got a lot of information out with out making it seem like big scary DFCS. We also went to their home and met the parents. The mom had MS and it was very sad to see her suffering. By the end of all the interviews Gigi thought the little boy had gotten some details from a movie mixed up with real life.
- I saw a grandmother give up her rights to her grandchildren in court. She was pretty old and just felt like she couldn't handle their behaviors any more. She was so upset and it just felt so cold in the court room. She was at one table, all by herself.
- Sat in on the family team meeting for the 12 & 15 year old and their family who I met a few weeks ago. I had no idea these types of meetings took place. It was great to see how CM's and families work together to form a plan for their reunification.
- I copied an entire case file for a family who had moved to Virginia and their children were taken into care there. There were four full files. I'm sure I killed an entire forest yesterday!
- Went out an interviewed a family with a mother with a no contact bond. Daughter (17) was on the toilet screaming for toilet paper, mom got mad, a fight ensued. Mom hit daughter with a frying pan, then slapped the son. The daughter called 911, because she thought the cops would just tell them to get counseling. The cops arrested the mom. The daughter was distraught and felt like she had made a mistake. She said she was being really disrespectful...cursing her mom out and such. She thought the frying pan hit was an accident.
I've seen some crazy stories!
- I was able to attend the last day of a TPR hearing. There were three girls. (like 13, 15, 16 maybe) Abusive dad and mom wouldn't leave the dad. Neither parent showed up. All three girls really wanted to go home with their mom, but admitted they were scared of dad. I didn't get to hear the judges ruling, but DFCS, the GAL, and the CASA worker all recommended TPR.
I'm enjoying my time at DFCS, but I don't think I want to work for DFCS anymore. (Does it help that all the CM's tell me not to work there?) I would still love to do work in child welfare, but not in this capacity. I turned in my application for next year and I put the local hospital as my first choice. I've been reading about pediatric oncology social workers and thinking I might like to do that or least work in a hospital for a while.
I spoke with a professor about applying for my doctorate. I was hoping to just apply right after this, but was worried I would need experience. She confirmed that, but said she had some good resources for me. I'm meeting with her this coming week, so we shall see how it goes!
Things have been going well in Sleepy County. From my seminar class, I've learned that our counties is one of the best in terms of internships. A lot of other people in DFCS aren't doing much or the case managers don't seem to want interns coming along.
The other girl from my class, Scarlet, and I have become pretty good friends this semester. We share a little office, so I guess we were forced to become friends!
Some highlights
- Hmong family. Teacher reported a little boy said his dad had beat his mom with a vacuum cleaner. The case came into Gigi (who is becoming my favorite case manager!). The family had 8 kids (5 in elementary school, 2 in middle, 1 at home) Scarlet went with Gigi to document the younger kids' interviews and I went to the middle school.
I was very impressed by Gigi's skills. She made the kids very comfortable, chatted it up like they were old friends, and got a lot of information out with out making it seem like big scary DFCS. We also went to their home and met the parents. The mom had MS and it was very sad to see her suffering. By the end of all the interviews Gigi thought the little boy had gotten some details from a movie mixed up with real life.
- I saw a grandmother give up her rights to her grandchildren in court. She was pretty old and just felt like she couldn't handle their behaviors any more. She was so upset and it just felt so cold in the court room. She was at one table, all by herself.
- Sat in on the family team meeting for the 12 & 15 year old and their family who I met a few weeks ago. I had no idea these types of meetings took place. It was great to see how CM's and families work together to form a plan for their reunification.
- I copied an entire case file for a family who had moved to Virginia and their children were taken into care there. There were four full files. I'm sure I killed an entire forest yesterday!
- Went out an interviewed a family with a mother with a no contact bond. Daughter (17) was on the toilet screaming for toilet paper, mom got mad, a fight ensued. Mom hit daughter with a frying pan, then slapped the son. The daughter called 911, because she thought the cops would just tell them to get counseling. The cops arrested the mom. The daughter was distraught and felt like she had made a mistake. She said she was being really disrespectful...cursing her mom out and such. She thought the frying pan hit was an accident.
I've seen some crazy stories!
- I was able to attend the last day of a TPR hearing. There were three girls. (like 13, 15, 16 maybe) Abusive dad and mom wouldn't leave the dad. Neither parent showed up. All three girls really wanted to go home with their mom, but admitted they were scared of dad. I didn't get to hear the judges ruling, but DFCS, the GAL, and the CASA worker all recommended TPR.
I'm enjoying my time at DFCS, but I don't think I want to work for DFCS anymore. (Does it help that all the CM's tell me not to work there?) I would still love to do work in child welfare, but not in this capacity. I turned in my application for next year and I put the local hospital as my first choice. I've been reading about pediatric oncology social workers and thinking I might like to do that or least work in a hospital for a while.
I spoke with a professor about applying for my doctorate. I was hoping to just apply right after this, but was worried I would need experience. She confirmed that, but said she had some good resources for me. I'm meeting with her this coming week, so we shall see how it goes!
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