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Beat 'em up, lock ' em up, or throw 'em away
Chapter 1
The Problems Facing Social Services for Children, Youth and Families
In the course of carrying out the study, we clarified just what in fact is occurring in states and localities that has led some people to talk of Q crisis in child welfare. While what follows in the Chapter are our own research conclusions, we did find that many of the field’s leaders shared many of these perceptions and had begun in their respective organizations to discuss implications. Beat ‘em up, Lock ‘em up, or Throw ‘em Awayf A repeated theme in interviews around the country is that the social service system has become so constricted that children can gain access to help only if they have been abused or severely neglected, are found delinquent, or run away. Doorways for “less serious” or differently defined problems are closed. Even for these situations, of course, the help may not be forthcoming, or if it is, may not be adequate. Child Protective Services (CPS) (covering physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect reports, investigations, assessments, and resultant actions) have emerged as the dominant public child and family service, in effect driving the public agency and often taking over child welfare entirely. In state after state, county after county, public officials described their child and family services as if there were only one function, child protection; or, as if that function were so important that any other service TAdapted from the titlt of an Arizona report by Dean Jesse F. McClure.
7
8
Kamerman
and Kahn
was insignificant by comparison and had to be sacrificed or constricted to ensure an adequate child protection response. Elsewhere, somewhat more is offered but forced into the child protection system and service mode. Child protective services toa!ayconstitute the core public child and family service, the fulcrum and sometimes, in some places, the totality of the system. Depending on the terms used, public social service agency administrators state either that “Child protection is child welfare”, or that “The increased demand for child protection has driven out all other child welfare services”. Often, the only other child and family social service provided is foster care, which in turn serves mostly abuse and neglect cases in most places. Despite Federal estimates of about 60 percent, current reports in many of the localities we studied suggest that about 90 to 95 percent of the children now going into foster care are placed away from home because of some form of alleged child abuse or severe neglect. Some of this seeming increase, of course, may constitute a re-labeling of less severe cases in order to assure access through a narrowed doorway, but this is not sufficient to explain-away the trends. Not only does CPS dominate child welfare in many places, but a small subgroup of severe abuse cases, perhaps 5 percent of the total load, dominates CPS and shapes the delivery system response. Administrators are constantly involved in damage control with regard to a small number of such cases and staff are often distressed at the knowledge that many “chronic neglect” or other serious cases get no care. For the most part these protective services are child rather than family-focused. They are organized around investigation and risk assessment rather than treatment, and as a result the large proportion of cases where the allegations are not substantiated receive no help regardless of how troubled the children and families may be. The consensus is that unfounded, the conclusion of most investigations, often does not mean needs no help or service. Furthermore, although the services are organized around investigation rather than placement, in a context in which placement is defined as poor public policy, placement is a major outcome. Child protective staff fear errors, especially the failure to take endangered children into care, and the subsequent public response to deaths or severe abuse and neglect. Reports of child maltreatment have increased by more than 60 percent since 1980, and are now more than 2 million annually, according to numerous documents, hearings, and reports (Joint Hearings, 1989;Committee on Ways and Means, 1989). Moreover, according to professionals in the agencies we studied, the proportion of allegations that is substantiated is increasing as well, in many places to about 60 percent of the reports (although here too, federal estimates are lower, about 40 percent in 1985).
The Problems Facing Social Services
The initial 1974 Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention legislation led to the development in many states of similar laws with similar requirements regarding the criteria for determining abuse and who should make reports. The result has been more mandated reporting, more public education and visibility, and more reports. Whether or not the actual incidence has increased (or how much) is not clear, but the reports, and the requirements for investigation, certainly have. And every time a severe abuse case captures the attention of the media, and a new campaign is begun, the incidence of reporting increases. One consequence is little staff time and energy or few agency resources to do much else than respond to these reports; and the response emphasizes risk assessment, placement, if needed, and efforts to divert all cases not needing the maximum response. In many locations, agencies have responded by stating that they cannot manage to do any more than serve those children and families that they are legislatively mandated to serve. All others who need help will be referred elsewhere in the community, if there are resources. In effect, cases that might be characterized as situations of long term chronic neglect (but not acute danger) are offered no help, not because their problems are not recognized but because there are no resources to provide help. Complex cases of abnormal behavior, disturbance, poor school and community adjustment are referred to limited or inadequate resources or simply ignored. Moreover, in several locales, staff are so overwhelmed, trying to complete timely investigations of the increasingly large volume of reports and develop plans to protect the most endangered children, that they do not even have adequate resources to carry out appropriate community supervision of families where this has been ordered by the court as an alternative to placement. And in some communities where the public agency is overwhelmed with abuse/neglect investigations, the solution has been to make the criteria for accepting cases more rigorous. In effect, the doorway into the agency is made narrower and the cases that are accepted restricted to still higher risk cases, in order to make the caseload more manageable. The Consequences of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act Paralleling the pressures placed on the child and family service agencies from increased demands for investigations of abuse and neglect and the protection of reported children are the pressures placed on administration and staff as a consequence of the child welfare reform of 1980. In brief, the legislation offered a new philosophy and a service framework. The federal government did not, however, provide the resources on which all else was premised. The result has been only partial success and some undesirable, unanticipated consequences.
The Problems Facing Social Services for Children, Youth and Families
In the course of carrying out the study, we clarified just what in fact is occurring in states and localities that has led some people to talk of Q crisis in child welfare. While what follows in the Chapter are our own research conclusions, we did find that many of the field’s leaders shared many of these perceptions and had begun in their respective organizations to discuss implications. Beat ‘em up, Lock ‘em up, or Throw ‘em Awayf A repeated theme in interviews around the country is that the social service system has become so constricted that children can gain access to help only if they have been abused or severely neglected, are found delinquent, or run away. Doorways for “less serious” or differently defined problems are closed. Even for these situations, of course, the help may not be forthcoming, or if it is, may not be adequate. Child Protective Services (CPS) (covering physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect reports, investigations, assessments, and resultant actions) have emerged as the dominant public child and family service, in effect driving the public agency and often taking over child welfare entirely. In state after state, county after county, public officials described their child and family services as if there were only one function, child protection; or, as if that function were so important that any other service TAdapted from the titlt of an Arizona report by Dean Jesse F. McClure.
7
8
Kamerman
and Kahn
was insignificant by comparison and had to be sacrificed or constricted to ensure an adequate child protection response. Elsewhere, somewhat more is offered but forced into the child protection system and service mode. Child protective services toa!ayconstitute the core public child and family service, the fulcrum and sometimes, in some places, the totality of the system. Depending on the terms used, public social service agency administrators state either that “Child protection is child welfare”, or that “The increased demand for child protection has driven out all other child welfare services”. Often, the only other child and family social service provided is foster care, which in turn serves mostly abuse and neglect cases in most places. Despite Federal estimates of about 60 percent, current reports in many of the localities we studied suggest that about 90 to 95 percent of the children now going into foster care are placed away from home because of some form of alleged child abuse or severe neglect. Some of this seeming increase, of course, may constitute a re-labeling of less severe cases in order to assure access through a narrowed doorway, but this is not sufficient to explain-away the trends. Not only does CPS dominate child welfare in many places, but a small subgroup of severe abuse cases, perhaps 5 percent of the total load, dominates CPS and shapes the delivery system response. Administrators are constantly involved in damage control with regard to a small number of such cases and staff are often distressed at the knowledge that many “chronic neglect” or other serious cases get no care. For the most part these protective services are child rather than family-focused. They are organized around investigation and risk assessment rather than treatment, and as a result the large proportion of cases where the allegations are not substantiated receive no help regardless of how troubled the children and families may be. The consensus is that unfounded, the conclusion of most investigations, often does not mean needs no help or service. Furthermore, although the services are organized around investigation rather than placement, in a context in which placement is defined as poor public policy, placement is a major outcome. Child protective staff fear errors, especially the failure to take endangered children into care, and the subsequent public response to deaths or severe abuse and neglect. Reports of child maltreatment have increased by more than 60 percent since 1980, and are now more than 2 million annually, according to numerous documents, hearings, and reports (Joint Hearings, 1989;Committee on Ways and Means, 1989). Moreover, according to professionals in the agencies we studied, the proportion of allegations that is substantiated is increasing as well, in many places to about 60 percent of the reports (although here too, federal estimates are lower, about 40 percent in 1985).
The Problems Facing Social Services
The initial 1974 Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention legislation led to the development in many states of similar laws with similar requirements regarding the criteria for determining abuse and who should make reports. The result has been more mandated reporting, more public education and visibility, and more reports. Whether or not the actual incidence has increased (or how much) is not clear, but the reports, and the requirements for investigation, certainly have. And every time a severe abuse case captures the attention of the media, and a new campaign is begun, the incidence of reporting increases. One consequence is little staff time and energy or few agency resources to do much else than respond to these reports; and the response emphasizes risk assessment, placement, if needed, and efforts to divert all cases not needing the maximum response. In many locations, agencies have responded by stating that they cannot manage to do any more than serve those children and families that they are legislatively mandated to serve. All others who need help will be referred elsewhere in the community, if there are resources. In effect, cases that might be characterized as situations of long term chronic neglect (but not acute danger) are offered no help, not because their problems are not recognized but because there are no resources to provide help. Complex cases of abnormal behavior, disturbance, poor school and community adjustment are referred to limited or inadequate resources or simply ignored. Moreover, in several locales, staff are so overwhelmed, trying to complete timely investigations of the increasingly large volume of reports and develop plans to protect the most endangered children, that they do not even have adequate resources to carry out appropriate community supervision of families where this has been ordered by the court as an alternative to placement. And in some communities where the public agency is overwhelmed with abuse/neglect investigations, the solution has been to make the criteria for accepting cases more rigorous. In effect, the doorway into the agency is made narrower and the cases that are accepted restricted to still higher risk cases, in order to make the caseload more manageable. The Consequences of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act Paralleling the pressures placed on the child and family service agencies from increased demands for investigations of abuse and neglect and the protection of reported children are the pressures placed on administration and staff as a consequence of the child welfare reform of 1980. In brief, the legislation offered a new philosophy and a service framework. The federal government did not, however, provide the resources on which all else was premised. The result has been only partial success and some undesirable, unanticipated consequences.