Social workers say they are being unfairly blamed for child deaths

Nearly a hundred L.A. County social workers quietly protested in front of the downtown Los Angeles county building at the start of this morning's supervisors' meeting, saying they were being unfairly blamed in the deaths last year of 14 children whom they had been charged with tracking.

The deaths, all stemming from abuse or neglect, were first publicly reported in The Times last week.

Though supervisors had been informed previously of the deaths one by one, the public tally caused some to express shock and outrage. Supervisor Gloria Molina faulted social workers, and Supervisor Michael Antonovich demanded an investigation.

The Times also reported that the problem of such deaths among children on social workers' watch was not isolated to 2008. In 2007, there were 12 such deaths reported; in 2006, 14. Records show the causes of death were similar to those reported last year.

Shortly after the 2008 deaths were publicly reported, Trish Ploehn, director of the Department of Children's and Family Services, launched investigations into 10 of the cases that are likely to result in disciplinary action. She assigned the 53 social workers involved in those cases to desk jobs, where they remained this week, a union spokeswoman said.

This morning, social workers said that blaming them was unfair. The problem, they argued, was outdated technology and under-staffing, leading to unmanageable caseloads. Ploehn cited the same problems last week when she appeared before supervisors.

"We are tired of being blamed for a system that is broken and over which we have no control," said Tony Bravo, a supervising children's social worker in Commerce who has worked for the department for 28 years. "We want to be part of the healing process. We know what it takes to keep children safe."

Bravo and other social workers concede that the circumstances of many of the 2008 deaths were shocking, indicative of "systemic problems" in the way the department monitors and protects children. An independent monitor is supposed to identify systemic problems in the department, but supervisors have left the position vacant for more than a year.

 

--Molly Hennessy-Fiske

 

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Comments

[Jay Dee]

I guess everyone that works for Department of Children's and Family Services are all followers waiting for instructions. No brainers. I have had dealings with this department and the only thing they do is make it hard for a parent for be with their kids. Your are guilty until proven innocent. Once they get involved in your life they make it miserable. They are suppose to help unite a family together and give them support but the do the exact opposite. This is one department that should be eliminate. Wasteful spending of the tax payers money.

[glenbear]

they use the title "social worker" too loosely at most county level jobs. a social worker is someone with a masters, or at least a bachelor degree, from an acredited educational institution. most of the county workers providing child and adult protective services have the title of social worker without the specialized education to back up this type of position. i am an msw and carry the title social worker and know personally of workers for the county in the dcfs system that consider themselves social workers but have bachelors degrees in areas that are not even close to social/human services field. lets get some clarity on who is providing this service and demand that these people have the educational and vocational background to care for those at risk of exploitation.

[Shella]

One Orange County social worker has refused to look at the Riverside County files that she had on her desk for over 4 years to verify that she had indeed violated a Riverside County order for monitored visitation between a child and the person whom Orange County had given full custody to and ALSO paid foster care payments to. Repeated phone calls (for years) did not spur this woman to even open her own files and read it for herself. This Rose smells, and not in a good way.

[lexushoneybee]

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with almost 30 years of experience in child welfare. I worked in LA County in the late 1990's and was consistently negatively impressed with DCFS. There is an inbred culture in this system which supports entitlement of staff and which is deeply corrupt. They have lost their way...forgot who is their client and turned a system which is designed to help keep kids safe into a system which cares more about the well being of their staff. This is a leadership issue which calls for some house cleaning and a committment to hire leaders who care more about doing their job than keeping their job. Children die even when everyone does everything right but NO CHILD SHOULD DIE BECAUSE SOMEONE DID NOT DO THEIR JOB!

[Maggie]

This Agency but over all all agencys all around the country are just corrupted,liars, who lie to courts,judges try to keep children away from their parents and overall from the fathers. They lie,lie,lie and want to keep children in the walfare system so that they can have alot of work by all means. They need to fire all this lying case workers social worker supervisors and this agencys that all they do is hurt our children. They dont protect them they just pimp them and use them as a form of a paycheck by the state. They need to fire all this crooked social workers and take their imunity away so that they can be sued and accountable for their own actions. Anyone who has dealt with this agencys will say the same thing OMG WE ARE IN THE USA I cant belive this lies.