Medusa’s Wink (misses 🔗)

I'll join in!

I once was asked what my biggest dream/goal was when I was a teenager and I just made something up because I couldn't think of anything.

I was literally that joke from a parody of 8 Mile, "My dream is to have a dream!"

(thankfully now I actually have goals lol)

All right, here's one: I've wimped out of saying who my favorite character on a TV show was because I was scared my answer would say too much about me, or at least raise questions.

i own 100 pairs of yoga pants that have never seen the interior of a yoga studio.

💛💛

Seriously this place has the best Lukes, bar none
~ theater kid

You folks are great (yes you). Sometimes this place feels like a theater kid cuddle puddle

…ever happens again, he has instructions to call me, day or night”

I don’t know if i did the right thing. But they’d both been abused and exploited

She needed to be reminded, this is your son, your heart, your responsibility. I will help in every way i can. But no more violence, for either of you.

I had to do something.

So i sat her down, with him there, and i told her the truth. That many workers would consider that slap a mandated report.

Then i said, “I’m not going to report you, because i can see thar you’re doing everything possible as a single mom.

BUT. He has my number. And if it

…come in for a conference. It had come out that she had once slapped him.

After a full assessment, i knew good and well that DCFS would do nothing even if i reported that slap. He was too old, too big, and neither had any record of problem behavior.

But his dad had already let him down, and i felt

I just wrote a whole thread on mandated child abuse reporting, but one time i did not follow my own advice.

My client was in his late teens, referred for counseling because his absentee father had been abusive and neglectful.

I saw him weekly for a year. When school was ending, i asked his mom to

clients*

By design. Its eugenics

Yep. Same. And we just announce a halt on all research into epstein-barr, chicken pox/shingles (which i also have on my mouth and IN MY EYE), and herpes.

Absofuckinglutely.

Measles, COVID, RSV, flu, meningitis, chicken pox, epstein-barr (mono), polio POLIO! …a myriad of illnesses they’re releasing into public health, filling prisons with, and fighting all control measures like vaccination and masks.

As a dedicated weirdo, i feel i have somehow failed

Hard agree - whole thread 🧵 i wrote about this. Thank you for saying it.

I’m really glad that hospital did that for you. It’s so important that we listen to children.

And the same happened to me as a country kid. After i put my hand on a hot tractor engine and burned my palm off, questions were asked!

But, i mentioned somewhere, we also know that kids do get hurt.

In complete darkness, food is slowly going bad as well as meds. Please help 🙏🏻🫶🏻 @medusaswink.bsky.social @smenor.com @kingtherapy.bsky.social @sealab2021.org @jerry.resplendent.hair @jeffreysens.bsky.social @sheeri.org @wylder.bsky.social @vastramutualaid.bsky.social

abuse present, most children do better long term if they remain WITH the family unit.

So it’s up to #SocialWorkers to do everything in their power to avoid that.

Again, our job is to remove the abuse, not to remove the child. Separation should always be a last resort, with a reunification plan.

To summarize: Systems like DCFS and CPS are set up to make social workers adversarial to their cluents.

When abuse or neglect within the household is not successfully supported or corrected, then removal might be necessary.

But here we have a problem. Research has repeatedly shown that even with

The result is almost always resources, rather than separation/foster placement.

There’s a simple reason for this; a #SocialWorker has already demonstrated involvement and support for the family in question.

Someone is already intervening.

We can be the glue keeping safe family members together.

The same can be done with both parents involved, as long as the clinician manages the situation in a way that does not play custodial parents against one another.

The focus remains ALWAYS on the best interests of the child.

And when reports are done in a transparent way, with parents’ cooperation?

was right there to answer all the DCFS worker’s questions immediately (she had declined an attorney).

So nobody was surprised when DCFS arrived to do an assessment. The child remained safely with my client.

What we hope to avoid is separation from the family unit.

Remove the abuse, not the child.

For example; i once had a client whose partner hit her while she was holding their infant.

In CA, that is an automatic report. There was a police record of it, so no denying that DCFS had to be called.

The way we resolved this? She agreed to call DCF with me. I reported the incident, and then she

First off, every client a social worker sees should be told what we are required to report. A report should *never* come as a surprise.

This is not only legal and ethical informed consent; it also opens the path to reporting concerning behavior with, rather than against, a parent or family member.

CW: #ChildAbuse

A final (we all hope) word about #MandatedReporting of potential child abuse - there is a way to do it that minimizes harm as much as possible. But it is tricky, and not taught in #SocialWork programs.

Make the report WITH the custodial parent/s.

Yes, it is allowed.

Yes, trauma does change our brains.

But so does recovery ❤️‍🩹