Child Welfare Crises

I like to keep positive about most areas of my life.  At times you must consider worst case scenario so that you can plan how to keep from ending up there.  I am on employment insurance since leaving a professional career for health reasons.  When you are in university you feel you have the world by the tail when you get accepted into a professional faculty.  The reality is if you get ill and can’t do the job after graduation that the losses you experience are devastating.  Many students have student debts that can run as high as 60 or 70 thousand.  The burnout rate in the child protection field is staggeringly high.  This isn’t talked about when you are training for this field.  The reality is that most workers get hired in the protection field because the other jobs are competed for internally.  No one wants to stay in the protection jobs and if they don’t get out many pay the price with their health.  In Newfoundland the protection jobs will be consolidated with in care and adoption jobs as well as with Youth Corrections.  The new term for the profession is generalist social worker.  I suspect this means three jobs for the price of one.  The argument is made that this will enable the worker to work with a family for the entire process and therefore be more efficient.  The reality is that the work for all three jobs is so detailed and encompassing none of the jobs will be done well with a generalist system.  I speak out because I have become a causality of the system after just three years working in the field.  When my doctor said that my blood pressure was dangerously high for stroke or heart attack I paid attention.  I have a young child to raise and I will not sacrifice my life or well being for any job.  I have had two clinical depressions in the three years I have worked in the child protection field.  To make things more complicated I was not on good terms with my supervisor following a complaint.  I felt stripped of my dignity and it hurt deeply to have my integrity questioned.  The field in my view is corrupt and highly toxic to work in.  Any worker can become a casualty if they for whatever reason end up under the microscope.  Working in a helping profession a worker is constantly vulnerable to complaints from the public.  A worker is seen as the bad guy by virtue of what they do as part of their job description.  If a protection worker comes to your door its in response to a complaint otherwise known as a referral.  The worker follows the manager’s directive with each referral received.  The sad reality is that if anything goes wrong or if there is a complaint the manager does not always have your back.  The worker on the front lines is often the fall guy and it doesn’t matter that they acted on their managers directive.  I am unable to think of myself as a social worker since leaving the field.  I was hurt and traumatized by how I was treated and I could never go back to being what I was.  I believe in second chances for families and workers alike.  The system is ruthless and chews workers up and the system remains unaffected and appearing honorable.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  While I recognize that there are families who should not have children there is an urgent need for prevention work.  Responding in crises mode harms the family, the child and the worker.  This process does not work.  It is the adult child who needs counseling years later because of the harmful effect of having been  taken into care.   How do we make these agencies accountable and more transparent.  Until an Ombudsman is given authority over these organizations and holds them accountable  harmful practices will continue.  There is no organization in society that has the power to enter ones home and take children out.  Recently there has been an amendment made whereby if emotional harm is suspected you remove first and investigate later.  I cannot imagine working in a job that has these expectations of it’s workers.  The front line worker does the job and is exposed to the trauma along with the affected family.  A worker cannot do this job in the long run without paying a great price with their health.  The time has come to move the workers out of the agency and place them in the communities to work with families in a preventive way before things get to crisis mode.  I am placing myself at risk by speaking out against powerful agencies such as these.  To not speak out these practices will continue unchecked.  How bad do things have to get before these organizations are held accountable.  I am thankful that I got out and that I am in recovery mode as I reclaim my health and my life.  I fear for workers I know who remain in the field.  I also fear for families who end up on the radar of organizations such as these.