From: hough@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Susan Hough)
Subject: Re: "Love" Triangle
Summary: again, sheesh 
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 00:11:42 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.183707.1943@ticipa.pac.sc.ti.com> elise@ticipa.pac.sc.ti.com (Elise Wade) writes:
>
>Interesting, Susan.  What kind of work load does your social services
>have?  The folks around here seem to be fairly decent, but they are
>definitely overloaded.  I mean they have families with *real* problems,
>physical & sexual abuse, drug addiction, abandonment, etc.  I cannot
>see the rather mild case of imposition on the neighbors as being in
>the same league with the types of cases CPS usually works on.

If the first social welfare agency that you call is overloaded with
*real* problems, you don't suppose there's a chance that they could
still provide helpful alternative places to contact, do you?  Maybe
they know about Headstart programs.  Maybe they know about a local
family support agency (there was one in the town that we used to
live in).  I'm not involved with the case currently under discussion
here, but I was involved with something that at least sounds
very similar.  The problem in the latter case went much, 
much deeper than a "mild case of
imposition on neighbors".   

>parenting courses on their own if they wanted.  The social workers
>who come to help families have *major* disasters to deal with --
>like say alcoholic parents who have trouble staying sober & holding
>down jobs.  These social workers don't have the time to work with only
>mildly disfunctional families --  & frankly should be spending
>their time with families who must have the help to survive.

If you'd seen the effects on this 8-yr old girl that we dealt with,
I wonder if you'd be so quick to describe the family as mildly
disfunctional.  Again, the point here is that a social welfare
agency should be aware of the support services that are available
in a community and of the options that might be appropriate.  If
Head Start isn't appropriate, maybe something else is.
  
>Well, not only do I think it inappropriate to call CPS in such a case,
>I suspect it could do far more harm than good. (Assuming we aren't talking
>real neglect, just some boorish imposition on the neighbors.)  For one

Go back and read the original posting.  The kids were wandering over
to the neighbor's house at every opportunity because Dad was glued to
video games and Mom was apparently too busy to do anything with them
either.  In our case, this 8-yr old girl was routinely left in the care
of here mummified grandmother who provided no supervision at all.  Now,
how do you define real neglect?  Maybe the social welfare workers will
indeed tell you that their hands are absolutely full with life-and-death
cases, but at least you can call them to scope out the range of 
support services that might be available.  

>that family ends up with a "record".  This is unfortunate and varies
>from state to state, but its like giving someone a bad credit rating
>-- only much worse.  No wrong doing ever has to be shown.  These laws
>need changing, but its a fact of life now.  Thirdly, since CPS deals with

This may be true, but are you really arguing that no level of parental
neglect warrants intervention as long as the kids are clothed and fed?
At what point _would_ _you_ define emotional neglect?
 
Sue

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