Child Protective Services

For those who don't know I'm a level III investigator against child abuse for for the state of Arizona Department of Economic Security division of Child Protective Services (CPS) in Pinal County, AZ.

My duties are many and I work with numerous agencies and individuals. I'm contractually obligated til May of 2010 to stay with this mediocre bureaucracy and idle administration. CPS is a reactive system filled with limited resources and poor funding. As a social worker I am held back from truly helping needy and oppressed families due to state finances and policies. I feel at times that my hands are tied in advocating and taking action for children and families. I instead find myself passively investigating abuse reports. I would leave CPS however, CPS/State of Arizona paid for my in-state graduate fees and tuition at ASU and now I am pain stakingly paying the state back with a two year commitment to CPS.

To give you all a scope of CPS's network here is a list of advocates, providers, source reporters and workers with whom I have contact with on a pretty regular basis: Foster parents, group home case managers, residential treatment centers, assistant attorney generals, defense lawyers, guardian ad-lit ems, city of Mesa police, city of Apache Junction police, Pinal county deputies and sheriffs, detectives, victim advocates, news reporters, policy makers, the Mexican consulate, immigration control enforcement ICE, professional interpreters, CPS court liaisons, court appointed special advocates aka CASA's, a panel of foster care review board volunteers, facilitators for team decision making meetings, adoption agencies, parent aides, case aides, CPS secretaries, forensic interviewers, mental health and behavioral health professionals, medical personnel, drug testing labs, judges, bailiffs, juvenile probation officers, teachers, nurses, medical social workers, intake workers, individual in-patient and out-patient therapists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, marriage and family therapists, prisoners and inmates, social workers, substance abuse counselors, AA & NA groups, primary care physicians, pediatricians, psychiatrists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, Native Americans and tribes, anger management specialists, crisis teams, juvenile detention personnel, department of developmental disabilities case managers (DDD), respite and habilitation workers, EMT's, public defenders, family assistance administration workers FAA, welfare specialists, mediators, adult protective services APS, temp agencies, child care and day care workers, preschool workers, head start workers, healthy family specialists, out of state CPS workers, Arizona's early intervention workers, principals, school secretaries, school social workers and school counselors, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, housing authorities, resource specialists, community members, jaded co-workers, a callused boss, angry parents, bitter ex-spouses, dysfunctional families immediate and extended, oh yeah and abused or allegedly abused or neglected kids from birth to adolescence.

This probably gave you a headache just reading the list. Now you know why I am overwhelmed and eat a lot of comfort food just to get through the day, not including getting through my paper trails!..Below is a really good article from the press that is surprisingly optimistic not negative and blaming.



CPS workers excel despite scant support

by Todd Schwarz - Sept. 23, 2009 Special for the Republic

Recent events got me thinking of a conversation I had with a co-worker a while back. He had served on a jury that was deciding whether to take five children away from a mother who neglected them and allowed others to abuse them. It was one of those hard cases with no good option and no good news.
My friend said there was really only one witness who stood out, one person who tried to make the best of a bad situation: the caseworker from Child Protective Services.
We hear about CPS caseworkers every time we hear about abused children. They are ones who get all the blame and no praise. Have you ever thought about what their jobs must be like?
Average CPS caseworkers handle 30 cases at any given time.
They are required to visit every child in their caseload at least once each month. The typical visit calls for separate interviews with the child and the family with which they are placed.
An inspection of the living areas including bedrooms and play areas also is required.
Most cases require an interview with the child's parents in order to assess whether reunification is possible. Every visit requires caseworkers to record their notes and findings.
Then there are the intakes and investigations of new cases. Caseworkers are required by law to make an on-sight investigation within 72 hours of being assigned a Priority 2 case. Unfortunately, layoffs and office consolidations frequently result in cases not being assigned for more than 48 hours. Not enough staff, not enough time - and the added fear of breaking a law.
You would at least expect that they would have a nice office to go to work on their notes, make phone calls and plan their visits. Maybe a place to unwind, de-stress and recharge.
Not in Arizona.
As budgets have been cut, offices have been closed. The number of caseworkers in the average CPS office has almost doubled this year. With the increase in staff at each site, there is a shortage of office supplies and waiting areas for clients. Computers slow down or crash.
At one office, toilet paper runs out by midday.
Can you imagine working in an office that runs out of toilet paper by 2 p.m. every day?
You'd quit.
Well, you would if you didn't (a) have a strong sense of public service to your clients and (b) live in a state with 9.2 percent unemployment.
So, the next time you hear about the death of an innocent child and your state legislator calls for releasing confidential personnel information about the caseworker, or calls for budget cuts to punish Child Protective Services, stop and think. Ask yourself why CPS caseworkers can't stop all of the abuse. Ask yourself why we shouldn't fund an agency that gets it right 99.9 percent of the time.
Call your legislator and ask why CPS caseworkers haven't gotten a raise in three years but instead have had their stipends taken away and aren't allowed to work overtime due to budget cuts. Ask who would do this work for so little appreciation. Then ask your legislator why, if he or she truly believes "children are our future," it is more important to cut taxes yet again rather than adequately fund an agency that works so hard to give kids the future we hold so dear for them.

6 months of bliss!

I suprised Katie with a red rose arrangment from Catus Flowers last weekend for our 6 month wedding celebration. Then I took her out to eat and to a Rodger Clyne concert at Chase Field for a little anniversary 1,2,pow! Kaite and I sang along and danced, it was a blast. One of our favorite songs and a song that was in our wedding video is "Maybe We Should Fall In Love". We were way stoked when they played it!

Here's a beautiful shot of the sunset with my gorgeous girl in downtown Phoenix!

Our handsome young KC! His eyes aren't blue it was the camera flash

I made some fun desserts for my brother-in-law's 19th B-day. Homemade strawberry pie and below Magnolia's Pudding. Katie, thought they looked really good so she had to take a pic!

Good news I start my new part-time job as a crisis intervention specialist in October. I will work on-call on the weekends and on holidays. It's a two man team that goes out to distress calls made to the crisis line in Pinal county, AZ. Katie will start babysitting a ward members friend in October as well. She can't wait to hang with Harper (1) for a couple hours on the weekdays. Our puppy is potty trained now at only 10 weeks. He is way good on going outside. Yeah! Besides that Katie and I have been volunteering at Make A Wish Foundation. We just did a free cold stone event to raise money for the medically fragile kiddos!

I love this pic of Katie flashing the peace sign! What a cutie!

That's my Katie-girl!!! PEACE!

New Trick

Here is a video of our crazy little guy KC. (Chad reminded me that we need to spell his name KC because it's short for Katie and Chad..haha) This is his new trick!

High Fives and Long Prayers

So yesterday while making sweet pork salads (yes, they are BETTER than Cafe Rio/Costa Vida's wanna-be salads), it dawned on me that all day we had ZERO accidents from a certain puppy. I was SO proud of myself. I said, "Honey, we've had no pee today! Yay-high five!" and continued to give a loud high five to my husband. We were so thrilled with ourselves. It's got to be some sort of a record, right? Less than a week and already potty-trained? We were pro's.
As dinner was on the table and Chad had said "I'm hungry. Is it ready?" like 5 times, we were about to say a prayer. Chad had already put food on his fork and was half way to his mouth, when he closed his eyes and asked me to say it. Now, being the brat that I sometimes am, I decided to say an EXTRA long prayer. I thanked God for everything, even Chad's saliva that seemed to be falling from his mouth.
After the extensive prayer, I smirked and said, "golly, I just had to do it!" and then looked down at our carpet. Our little angel had decided to take a leak on our carpet while we closed our eyes and prayed. I gotta hand it to him, he's smart. Too smart. I yelled out, "What the pee?!" and hubby just smirked and said, "That's what you get."
My lesson? No more high fives or long prayers.