[LJ Idol 7: Topic 6] Case Files and Articles

[cheshire23]

Comments

[banyangirl1832]

This was awesome and really enlightening. I never would have known about it had you not written about it, so thank you.

[cheshire23]

Thanks - I wouldn't have known about it either if I didn't work at OCFS, so I figure that makes it worth talking about.

[pricelessone]

I am glad you wrote about this. I know a little girl who lives in a group home because she cannot cope in a typical home. We all need to be aware that children like this exist and deserve support and love.

[cheshire23]

Yeah. It's very rare for parents to actually be able to provide round-the-clock awake care and supervision, and some kids legitimately need exactly that. The ideal is to get things to a better point and then let them go back home, but it's hard.

[basric]

A wonderful entry. Very informative. They are lucky to have someone who has not yet been beaten down by the system that is still an advocate for them. It takes a special person to work with children, physically, emotionally or spiritually or a combination thereof on a daily basis.

Well written.

[cheshire23]

Thanks! In some ways, it's easier to be/stay the advocate because I'm not dealing with it face-to-face direct care, day in, day out.

[imafarmgirl]

Great post. They are definitely the community's kids. If we treated them that way and took an interest I think it would help. Touching piece of writing filled with truth and things people need to hear.

[cheshire23]

Thanks very much.

It's frustrating how much kids with problems of any kind pick up the "somebody else's problem" field. And the finger-pointing and fault-finding gets ridiculous after a while. I mean, yes, there are times when a child's condition is obviously someone's fault (for instance a shaken baby). But...sometimes weird chromosome issues or premature births or totally unexpected problems with no apparent cause do just happen. And sometimes it's more than a parent can or should deal with.

[imafarmgirl]

I agree. At work I end up with the kids that grow into adults that no one wants to deal with.

[solstice_singer]

This was a very eye-opening piece of writing. I have a master's in social work, and so, studied some child welfare policies. However, I don't have a lot of patience for children, so don't work directly with them.

You're right. Everyone seems to think that certain problems just didn't exist in times past, but they did. Sometimes, they just weren't talked about. Times are changing, but people aren't necessarily following suit.

[cheshire23]

I'm not doing direct care (yet). My favorite population, as much as I have one so far, is late adolescent/young adult - centered on 16-21 but probably extending out a couple years either way.