Death of 8-month-old prompts Social Services to launch campaign to prevent child deaths from co-sleeping
http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/042909-DSS-response-to-child-fatality
| Wednesday, April 29, 2009 3:00 AM
jburchette@salisburypost.com To avoid more child deaths from co-sleeping arrangements, the Rowan County Department of Social Services will launch a public awareness campaign and provide cribs and suitable beds. The department will also do more drug screening of potential caregivers and seek court action when parents or caregivers don’t make adequate progress. And other in-house changes will be made in how Social Services staff handles cases. The changes outlined Tuesday evening to the Rowan County Social Services Board follow the recommendations of the State Child Fatality Review Team, which investigated the death of an 8-month-old child on May 2, 2008. The cause of death is officially “undetermined,” but officials concluded the child may have suffocated because of co-sleeping with his father. The 8-month-old and another child slept on a sofa with the father and apparently never had a bed. Social Services was involved with the family and received reports about neglect, but the case was assigned to an intern. Social Services Director Sandra Wilkes and Children’s Services Administrator Tom Brewer outlined the plan and provided a timeline for the various actions to be carried out. The first action will start today with a session at Rowan Regional Medical Center where representatives of the hospital, law enforcement, the schools and Social Services will renew training on requirements to report suspected child abuse or neglect. Social Services will develop a community-wide program to let people know the danger of co-sleeping arrangements for children ages 2 and younger. A community round table will be held June 30 on the risks of co-sleeping. Staff will document sleeping arrangements in homes and work to end dangerous situations. Effective immediately, supervisors will not assign immediate cases to a social worker who has less than six months of experience. Social Services administrators will develop a job description for student interns. Brewer also outlined several ongoing efforts including coming up with more money to pay for drug screening. The department has $1,200 a month budgeted for drug tests, but has exceeded that for several months. Brewer said that program is in danger of running out of money completely this budget year. John Blair, board member, questioned whether the child’s mother was tested for drugs shortly after he was found dead. Wilkes said the mother, who had a history of drug abuse, was not tested because the child was with his father. The plan will involve supervisors and the Social Services attorney in a coordinated effort to seek help from District Court judges when parents are non-compliant with the home service plan. Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254. |
Yes, lets talk about responsibility and accountablitiy….DSS was involved with this family and using the excuse that an intern was assigned to this case as a reason for why this child was not protected by DSS is a cop out and a line of BS….”Social Services was involved with the family and received reports about neglect, but the case was assigned to an intern.”
Even an intern should know that children need beds and if there was none in the home, then something should have been done by DSS to help fix the problem…It should have been put in the case plan or the father should have been told in order for the children to remain with him, he would have to get them beds….Reports had been received for Neglect….Neglect by definition is the failure to provide needed care or needed necessities.
Furthermore…all DSS intern’s and Social Workers are supposed to run everything that they do by their supervisor, so why did the supervisor not make sure that this intern was doing their job as provided by law…
Yes the father is guilty in this case for not providing a safe sleeping environment for this child, but DSS is just as guilty for not doing the same when they were involved with this family. It was their job to ensure this child safety as well and again they dropped the ball. Now they are trying to blame their failure on inexperience…when in fact, it is a failure of not only the intern, but the supervisor and the multi-response team that they are supposed to have in place.
They never take responsibilty for their mistakes and wrong doing.
4 Comments
Well the same judge ruled out another foster family when the foster Father was making sexual text messages sent to the biological Mother, Isn’t that something for North Carolina to have these problems with the DSS? Rowan county takes forever to investigate any matter and when they do get calls they will not investigate immediately. You will find this story really interesting. Check it out of your local library, it was posted in the Salisbury post. DSS is the ones that harms the children, they put them in homes like these, Rowan county needs to get rid off all of them at the CPS DSS and start off new. It takes a week or 2 for investigation, then its too late. Thats what happened here
I know for a fact that Rowan CPS is a sorry business.On feb 3 2011 a caseworker came out to my home and stated that there was “drug activity” in our home the caseworker asked if my mother and me would go for a drug screen we stated “yes”.The caseworker then stated that we had to take it before 5pm that day,which my mother and myself didint have a problem with that. On Feb 4 2011 the caseworker along with two officers came back to our home she stated that ” she would have to remove my 4 yr.old son at that time due to a dirty drug screen they told me that it would be best if my son was placed in kinship instead of in their care. At that time we didn,t have any living family members so I thought that my son would be safe with a friend of the families little did we know I had placed him with a “demon” due to no background checks by rcdss or any other sources. Since my son was took from my mother and myself in feb 2011 it is now Jan 2012 and im still jumping through rcdss hoops we have done everything that the soicalworkers have told us to do and then some and now we are still fighting to this day and the results are the same “NOTHING”
I jave had several dealings with Rowan County DSS and to date none of the help they promised me and my family has come to be.
Thanks to Rowan co DSS my family is in shatters. Four months ago a woman who didn’t like me filed a false report. My children were placed with my parents against my wishes for the investigation to be completed. My parents bought my children expensive gifts that they could keep, “if they came to live with grandma”. At the end of the whole mess the Rowan Co. social worker told my 16 year old son that he didn’t have to return home. However I’m told that I’m responsible for him till he is 18. My daughters returned home and forfeited their “gifts” to do so. The stress of basically losing my son has now caused my husband and I to seperate. My parents and I are no longer speaking since they refuse to send my son home. I have taken my daughters and had to move out of what was my home for 15 years. While moving my father shows at my house causing problems and local law enforcement had to be called out. My daughters now no longer want to be around their grandparents or even speak to them as well. Now here we are, my son refuses to speak to me, my daughters and I refuse to speak to my parents, my husband and I are looking at divorce trying to financially survive on our seperate paths while trying to keep the girls semi stable. Merry Christmas DSS, may Karma visit each of you that was involved in my case this holiday season and distroy that that you hold dearest to YOUR heart.