Our very own Jolyn Mikow recently presented a written testimony before the Federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (see text below). She also was a guest featured on a local radio program called The Source. Listen to her contributions at the following link: cpa.ds.npr.org/kstx/audio/2014/06/140623-source-cps.mp3 Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities Testimony 6/3/2014: Jolyn Mikow, LMSW, Ph.D. Department of Social Work University of Texas at San Antonio We are here today because we all recognize that there is a national problem with child death. Whether it is at the hands of the parent, relative or caretaker, one death is too many. Having worked for Texas CPS FOR OVER 13 years, I am very familiar with the impact a childs death can have on not only the family, caretakers and the community, but the CPS caseworker. I have worked those cases and have supervised other CPS workers as they experienced the impact of a child death on their caseload. One of the reasons I pursued my doctorate and academic career was to, in some small way, address the needs of these high need low resource families. The causes of child death due to abuse and neglect are not simple and they are impacted by the lack of mental health treatment, the long wait times for adequate housing, the lack of substance abuse treatment resources – these are just a few of the issues that play a factor in the stressors that contribute to child death. I have 2 points I want to make that may help address the issues that are of concern to this commission. 1. A level of consistent commitment for prevention and early intervention efforts that address the issues of child abuse and neglect and 2. Restoring funding and support for Title IV-E stipends and Title IV-B worker training. 1. Prevention needs to become a priority, not the first place to cut when budget pressures mount. Prevention should be the primary focus of any effort to address child death. The incidences of child abuse and neglect many times exceed the capacity of the child welfare system to respond adequately. Abuse and neglect investigations are reactionary by nature, adversarial in focus and are many times conducted well after the window of opportunity for changing and strengthening the family’s parenting has past. There needs to be demonstrated the level of commitment for prevention and early intervention efforts. Preventing poor outcomes is always preferable to the costs associated with child death, and the intensive and costly intervention of CPS in a family’s life. 2. Title IV-E funds provide stipends to students for obtaining both undergraduate and graduate social work degrees. This funding is critical in providing a trained, education workforce that is dedicated to providing professional services in public child welfare settings. I direct the title IV-E program here at UTSA and I also participate in the national network of these same programs across the U.S. There is research evidence that professionally trained social workers provide better casework services and get better case outcomes in public child welfare settings. In addition these social workers are more likely to stay employed with the child welfare agency, which is not the norm for most public child welfare workers, who have a turnover rate of between 50 and 90% across the states. In Texas this translates into $72 million in annual turnover costs for CPS (Texas DFPS Sunset Staff Report, May 2014). The research also shows that these professionally trained social workers make their greatest positive impact on case outcomes as supervisors to direct line staff. Across the country, there are many states that have lost their programs due to the increasingly restricted funding from Title IV-E, due to the budget reduction act and the decreasing penetration rate. Information from the recent Title IV-E National roundtable meeting in Galveston, Texas, finds that Delaware, Georgia and Florida currently have no Title IV-E stipend programs and Pennsylvania, along with several other states are experiencing increasing difficulty maintaining their programs. There has been a 60% reduction over that last 3 years in the amount of Title IV-E program expenditures that are reimbursed to the university. This reduction has resulted in drastic reductions in the number of students a program can educate. Here in Texas the restrictive interpretation of Title IV-E on which CPS positions can be funded, results in only funding positions that are providing services to foster children. Yet in Wyoming or Nevada any CPS position is eligible for Title IV-E stipends. This allows investigators in those states to receive professional training that is critically needed in the first stages of contact with a family, when they are more open to making changes and early effective interventions can be delivered. We need a consistent interpretation on the use of Title IV-E stipends that promotes and supports intervention by professionally trained social workers at any stage of public child welfare services. If this commission can only do one thing to impact the child death rate across the U.S., please consider restoring funding to and supporting the expansion of Title IV-E stipends, to provide a professionally trained, dedicated workforce to these most vulnerable abused and neglected children. Their life may literally depend on the education and training their caseworker has received. Thank You
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:27:23 +0000
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