RE: CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L digest 1352

["PFONNER, LINDA" <14D691@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay...I am a child welfare worker.  Let's see:

child welfare workers are usually a number of things:

1. university educated	yes
2. adult			yes
3. usually repressented by a union or association		yes
4. able to organise	yes
5. covered by all sorts of legislation, Occupational Health and    Safety - 
anti discrimination blah blah blah etc			yes
6. paid for what they do	yes		
7. able to leave the environment that stresses them for up to 16 hours    a 
day			yes, I can leave the physical environment of the
office.  I spend about half of every week in my car, visiting families at
home.  But some cases haunt you forever...especially the children that, for
various reasons, you aren't sure you helped, or who were already very
damaged before we were made aware.  Cases where the family fled the
jurisdiction, and you have nightmares thinking about what that child is
enduring, and you can't do anything about it except pray and call John
Walsh.

8. very quick to take the provissions of stress or burn out leave	not
an option, here; no such thing is available to us
9. able to move on to other arenas when it all gets to much.	that would
be quitting.
10. alledged to be competant	competancy is not relevant to this
conversation.
11. allowed to take holidays	12 days a year, 4 personal leave days,
weekends and vacation time
12. over pimples and hormonal shifts (alledgedly)	yes, we are capable
of mature decision-making, and calm discussion of stressful situations.

now compare this list to the kids!
Why would we compare our working environment to the conditions abused
children endure?  That's apples and oranges...and we cannot help the kids if
we are living on the ragged edge.  If we are functioning at too high a
stress level, we get impatient and we get careless...and we miss the red
flags that should help us determine that a family needs help.  Martyring
ourselves on the altar to the God of Abused Children doesn't help the kids a
bit.

One of the most significant advantages a caseworker can have in this
business is experience.  It gives you patience, it helps you spot subtle
details in the way a family functions that reveal more than the family
thinks.  You can say to a terrified mom that you've been doing this for a
while, now, and she's not the only woman who's ever made a mistake, and
you're going to get her help so it doesn't happen again.  Experienced
workers know that most parents love their kids and want to do what's
right...they just don't always know what that is or how to do it.    

When the working conditions are too poor, people bail out rapidly.  The
agency wastes a lot of money training new people, and the families never get
the advantage of working with an experienced professional.


Linda R. Pfonner
Child Protective Services
478 Main Street, Suite 321
Buffalo NY  14202-4103
716-858-8803
14D691@dfa.state.ny.us

Those who would give up essential Liberty,
to purchase a little temporary Safety, 
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
       ---Benjamin Franklin
                 The Papers of Ben Franklin, ed. L. W. Labaree