The ashes

How does one recover from trauma and PTSD? This area is for people who have been attacked by CPS and are having a hard time getting over it.

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jakefcps
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:48 am

The ashes

Postby jakefcps » Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:07 pm

Ok so Its been over a month now since CPS has removed my children due to false allegations. Of course I've refused to stipulate and now have a court hearing scheduled in October, in front of a judge not a jury since thats not available unless they attempt to terminate your parental rights. I get to see my children once every 2 weeks for an hour. My children have had a forensic interview and say that nothing has ever happened but CPS has said that there is "threat of harm". I feel as if they burnt my home down and I'm attempting to rebuild my life from the pieces that I can find in the ashes. I sleep 2 hours a night and wake up because I hear them or should I say the echo's of them and I go into their rooms and remember my babies. I still relive the day that the workers came and wouldn't give me any information just that they had a court order to take my kids and didn't need one for my nephew and my children started to cry and I stayed strong and helped them get their stuff together since "this would be over by the end of the day I'll have them back", so I thought. But as soon as they left and I closed my door, me as a man, lost total control of my emotions and I cried like I have never cried before. Now when I go to sleep I wake up because I hear them telling me please don't let them take me and I feel guilty for not doing more, even though I know there wasn't anything I could have done. How does CPS think that they are helping families when they are tearing them apart and weakening them? How and when will I feel like me again? And my biggest question is WHY!?

Please pray for my children.

Thank you

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Eljay
Posts: 2645
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:01 am

Re: The ashes

Postby Eljay » Wed Aug 01, 2012 2:00 pm

jakefcps wrote:And my biggest question is WHY!?




And the biggest answer is MONEY!!!!!!!!!!! You see, back in 1974 when congress first set up funding for CPS, it was all well intentioned help for the states to firmly establish services to protect children. Great in theory, right? Well, as soon as the federal dollars started rolling in to the states, they were able to hire even more social workers, and build more buildings, secure more foster families, and contract with more "service providers" and really take care of all of those abused children. They did a good job of taking care of all of the abuse and neglect cases that had been going on for years and the new ones that were popping up. Then the new cases started to level off so that they weren't getting as many "new" cases of abuse & neglect to treat. By this time, they had HUGE operating budgets, all dependent on the number of children and families who were "in the system." So, instead of cutting back on social workers, they started dragging out the cases even longer. Then they started "lowering the bar" so that minor abuse and neglect still warranted their attention. Yet their greed was insatiable so they started twisting words, fabricating evidence, outright lying in order to justify their "services" to families. They wrote polices and brainwashed employees to look for the worst in everything, to force innocent families into "services" because, after all, NOBODY is perfect and EVERYBODY could use a little help... you just have to look at things from a new direction (a twisted one). Good, ethical case workers couldn't take the pressure and quit. So they hired more and more people, anybody with a degree could be a "social worker." They forced their policies on them and overwhelmed them with cases. The ones who caught on to the game and stuck it out became front line case workers (the emergency or "intake" workers who write up the horrible stories that judges believe and approve removal of children), supervisors and directors. The ones that wouldn't play along quit (you'll find it all over the internet that the turnover rates are huge for "social workers").

Meanwhile, thousand and thousands of children are traumatized by being ripped from the arms of their safe and loving parents, all in the name of a paycheck. When cases like yours come along, they will believe the accuser because it means money for them. And a job... not just the paycheck but the sense of accomplishment... they think they're saving lives. The reality is that they ruin far more lives than they save. And what happens to perfectly normal children who are ripped from loving parents? Psychological damage that surfaces in their teens when they are angry and confused children, ones who retaliate by making false allegations against their foster parents. Now, oh, sure.... there are plenty of genuinely abused & neglected children out there who are helped by CPS, but it's the "gravy" cases that end up here, looking for the answers. :(
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

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Sarah79
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:49 pm

Re: The ashes

Postby Sarah79 » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:49 pm

Oh my heart broke reading your post. You sound like my husband. He would walk all around our property all night in and our of their rooms crying and crying. He is a very strong man and he loves his family. I am sorry you are going through this. I will pray what they do and are doing is so so so very evil and wrong. God sees it and hear our children's cries what they are doing will not go unpunished.

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monkette31
Posts: 1657
Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:12 am
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Re: The ashes

Postby monkette31 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:31 am

It's an industry. Personally, I hope for war.
I'm not a lawyer but will try and help you any way i can. My postings may seem harsh but they all stem from personal experience with DCFS. I am not a victim and take responsibility for my part in my life, but I will always help ANYONE learn about the corrupt sick system.

Sarah79
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:49 pm

Re: The ashes

Postby Sarah79 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:53 am

Your right Monkette it is an industry. My husband and I have actually hoped the economy does crumble maybe then they won't have so much stinkin' funding and have to get real jobs.

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Eljay
Posts: 2645
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:01 am

Re: The ashes

Postby Eljay » Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:48 am

Ha! Even in this horrible economy, even in one of the hardest hit states, they are leaving in droves!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... ck_check=1

Arizona CPS staffing turmoil is dire
Turnover rampant as foster cases rise
55 comments by Mary K. Reinhart - Sept. 6, 2012 11:11 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

A record number of child-abuse and neglect cases coupled with high staff turnover are undermining promises to improve Arizona's child-welfare agency and provide better care for the state's most vulnerable kids.

After more than a year of efforts to reform the state's Child Protective Services, and despite a governor's task force set up to help find solutions, the overwhelmed agency is falling further behind in attempts to recruit enough caseworkers and significantly reduce the backlog of thousands of cases.

CPS is nearly 500 workers short of meeting state and national caseload standards, according to the most recently published state data, in large part due to an unceasing increase in reports of child abuse and neglect.


The staff turnover rate at the agency has reached 31 percent, according to a biannual state report released last month, meaning nearly one in three front-line workers has quit his or her job this year.

And the latest monthly CPS report shows the number of children in foster care continues to rise, hitting a record 13,497 in July. That's a 22 percent increase over the same time last year.

Officials with the state Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS, said new recruitment staff and strategies, coupled with other internal improvements such as a streamlined investigations process, should help attract and retain more qualified caseworkers and eventually lighten caseloads.

But they acknowledged that the ongoing deluge of new cases -- averaging more than 100 a day -- is a struggle to manage. Caseloads that can be as high as twice the state and national standard led dozens of workers to leave CPS in the first six months of 2012.

"There's no way to argue the numbers," said Stacy Reinstein, deputy child-welfare program administrator. "The work that's coming in is increasing."

Gov. Jan Brewer created a task force on child safety last October in the wake of several child deaths, and DES Director Clarence Carter pledged to reform the child-welfare agency.

CPS continues to try to solve its staffing crisis and hired 215 new caseworkers through June, but 167 left during that same period. There are additional caseworkers in training who are not yet qualified to handle cases. An additional 27 positions are vacant.

That leaves Arizona more than 200 short of its 970 budgeted positions and 468 caseworkers short of what it would take to meet caseload standards, according to CPS data.

CPS has never met its own state standards, which are patterned after national standards based on monthly averages of 10 new investigations per worker, 19 families for "in-home" workers and 16 children for workers monitoring kids in foster care.

When field investigators look into hotline reports of child maltreatment, depending on the severity, they have between two hours and seven days to visit the family and determine whether the child is safe. Under state law, they have 45 days to complete the investigation, but the average investigation takes about six months, according to CPS data.

Because child-welfare work is difficult and draining, state agencies typically expect turnover rates that average 20 to 22 percent, said Nancy Dickinson, director of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute at the University of Maryland's School of Social Work.

Arizona's turnover is concerning, Dickinson said, and the consequences could be dire as families deal with a parade of new caseworkers.

"It's kind of like a snowball effect," she said. "Once turnover rates start increasing, workers don't stay around because their caseloads go up."

A California study showed that high turnover rates, considered 30 percent and above, led to higher rates of families coming back into the child-welfare system with new reports, as well as lengthier stays in foster care for children.

"It really changes the way families are treated," Dickinson said of caseworker turnover.

Another study in Wisconsin showed children who kept the same caseworker had a 75 percent chance of finding a permanent home, but their chances dropped to 17 percent when they had two or more workers.

Children and their families inevitably fall through the cracks when workers juggle too many cases. That can lead to tragedies, such as the death or serious injury of a child.

Current and former Arizona CPS workers say caseloads are unmanageable, and state data show that for nearly a year, workers have been unable to investigate 100 percent of abuse and neglect reports or to make monthly visits to foster children as required by state law.

And that's while some caseworkers earned overtime that amounted to almost half of their salaries during the past fiscal year. State Department of Administration records show workers and supervisors put in thousands of hours of overtime to try to keep up.

The state is vetting 350 to 500 resumes a month for CPS openings, said Edward Richards, who was hired in June to the newly created position of staff-recruitment manager.

Richards, who said the recruiting and hiring process had been disorganized, hired a second recruiter and two temporary workers to speed application processing.

To hire the right applicants, CPS will add a virtual job tryout so people have a better idea what they're getting into and administrators can tell if they have the right skills for the job.

A new, higher-paid fourth-tier CPS position for the most seasoned caseworkers, approved and funded by lawmakers last session to attract and retain top employees, will be added in October.

Reinstein said stepped-up recruiting and a raft of internal changes, including reduced paperwork, will eventually ease a stubborn backlog still hovering around 10,000 cases. More mentoring and shadowing for new caseworkers and additional training for supervisors also should help retain employees, she said.

Community support is also key, she said, both for CPS case managers and the struggling families in their midst.

"I believe this is the most noble job in government. This job helps kids. In their work, they protect children. They care for them. They help to find them a safe place to grow up," Reinstein said.

"It's important that we have the community at large to help us tackle some of these challenges."

Reach the reporter at [email protected]



(My apologies for posting the entire article, but the first news story link has disappeared and I didn't want to lose this valuable piece. )
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

----<>----<>----<>---- BREED WITH CAUTION ----<>----<>----<>----

Sarah79
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:49 pm

Re: The ashes

Postby Sarah79 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:11 am

Gasp that is just awful that they have not been able to investigate nearly 100 percent of all hotline calls. :roll:

"Pack your bags kids we're moving to Arizona!"

[quote][/q"I believe this is the most noble job in government. This job helps kids. In their work, they protect children. They care for them. They help to find them a safe place to grow up," Reinstein said.
uote]

Finger down my throat gagging........oh yes they are real heros aren't they!


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