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 Posté le: Dim Oct 06, 2013 3:49 am Sujet du message: Do you know more |
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Do you know more? Email Anna Patty 8am, Tuesday It's a standard Tuesday. I arrive at work at 8am, an hour before official starting time to get a ''head start'' on the day's work. Say hello to four other caseworkers and two casework managers before flinching at the red light alerting me to six voicemail messages from the previous day, to find out how the children we dropped off at 10pm last night have settled. Carer informs me she is exhausted, baby wouldn't sleep due to pain from ''nappy rash'', actually ''red raw and bleeding''. We had taken the baby to an emergency department to get medical treatment the previous evening. They had been ''overrun'' and sent us away. Older sister had nightmares and wet the bed. This had all upset the 10-year-old child, who had been in the carer's home for 10 months, so the carer requests that we move the new children that day. Advertisement Inform casework manager that we need to get the baby to hospital for treatment and find a new placement for both children, and that I can't do any of this as I need to start on the court care application that is due in two days. 9.30am, Tuesday Casework manager tells me to talk with the other casework manager; she will be leaving as she is due at a Children's Court at 9:30am. Interrupt other casework manager and then explain the whole story again. Casework manager asks me if the placement records for the two children are on the computer system yet; inform him no. Casework manager asks me if I have filled out the eight-page referral to find a new foster care placement. Tell him no. Casework manager asks me if I have called the Paediatric Registrar about getting the baby treated. Tell him no. Casework manager starts to symbolically bump his head on the desk. I am told the paternal grandparents of the children we removed yesterday are in the foyer, verbally abusing staff and demanding to see me. I explain they need to put them in an interview room as the mother is due here shortly too and there is tension between them. Turn back to talk to casework manager, who introduces me to a new colleague. The colleague is a new social work student on her first day. She seems a little taken back by the head-banging casework manager. 10am, Tuesday A colleague enters the room and sits down, holding back tears. She has just found out that a parent of a child she removed last month has committed suicide. I did the removal with her. The mum had major mental health and drug and alcohol issues. Just last week we had tried to get her scheduled but she worked the system, denying any suicidal thoughts to the doctor and mental health nursing staff. On my way back to my desk, I am told the grandparents have been in the waiting room for 20 minutes now and the mother has just walked in. The casework manager overhears this and says he'll organise the student to collect the baby - ''get in and see the grandparents''. I walk to the front counter to find the mum standing at the counter with two big striped bags of clothing for the children. Her eye is totally closed; the whole side of her face is red and black. She starts to talk and I can see it hurts for her even to talk. She assures me it is not so bad - looks worse than it actually is. I explain to the mum that her in-laws are in the building. I tell her I will give her a call later; we both know she doesn't want to see her parents-in-law. They hold her responsible for the children being removed by the department. She starts to leave quickly but then turns back. ''I know he didn't mean to do it,'' she says. ''He is a good dad.'' 10.30am,[url=http://www.michael-good.ca]Michael Kors Outlet[/url], Tuesday I quickly walk to the interview room and poke my head inside the door and apologise to the grandparents. I explain that I am waiting on a colleague who needs to attend the interview, so I will be back shortly. I dash back to the desk area where all the caseworkers sit, including the intake caseworker. It's her responsibility to follow up on the reports as they come in from the helpline, so they are usually in the office. I need a secondary now, I say. She starts to protest that she has just received a level one from the helpline, a case that needs to be responded to within 24 hours, and which the helpline had received at the beginning of the previous week. She can see the panic in my face. ''OK, OK,'' she says. I explain as we walk back to the interview room, going past the empty security monitor where I had requested someone to sit and watch the interview with the grandparents. There's no time to organise anybody now. We both grab the duress alarms that hang on the wall outside the interview room and put them in our pockets as we enter. The paternal grandfather tells me that this department has no right to take his grandchildren from his son just because that drunken ''so-and-so'' of a wife caused a scene and then ran to the neighbours and called police. His wife sits by his side throughout the whole interview, nodding her head whenever her husband turns to her. Overall it doesn't get as heated as I thought it might. The grandfather recognises that the facts are overwhelming; he has to listen as I document the extent of the injuries to the mum. He then tells me that he and his wife want to care for the grandchildren till his son gets his children back. I hand over the application forms for them to be assessed as suitable carers.. 11.30am, Tuesday I get back to my pod of six desks. Two years ago six caseworkers sat here, one at each desk. The computers are still there. I look around and shake my head, remembering the funeral of a colleague after his heart attack. What an inspirational person, so committed to his clients; but I almost had a heart attack when I got his files. But I must remember, ''no freeze on recruitment'', and the stats show we are more productive. Three workers do much more than six? I look at the glowing lights on the phone telling me there have been three more calls while I was in the interview room. They will have to wait till I have at least completed the form requesting a new placement for the two children. Then I will have time for a quick listen to the nine phone messages before I begin the care application. I click the mouse and open the computer's email program. There are about 25 new messages but only three have red apostrophes implying ''urgent''. 12.30pm, Tuesday I have a sandwich beside me, generously provided by my manager when she returned from court. And so I begin the writing the story of the removal of the two children which occurred the previous day. I sit down and start to recall what happened just yesterday - it seems like last week. First I had arrived at work planning to catch up on last week's work when the casework manager called me in for a new briefing. We planned our actions on the information raising concerns about domestic violence being witnessed by two children which had been reported by neighbours over the weekend. I attended the weekly staff meeting, then contacted the school for background information. The principal was away at a conference and the deputy had just left the school grounds to settle another crisis,[url=http://www.michael-good.ca]Michael Kors Purses[/url], so we would have to wait until the deputy returned . I finally get a call back from the school, the deputy apologising profusely about his lost morning. He is pleased we are concerned about this eight-year-old girl. He and the class teacher have been discussing some concerning behaviours that were indicators of harm. However, she has only been at the school a couple of months and the school staff hadn't really gotten to know the family; they didn't have enough to report. The girl is not in today so we arrange to come to the school tomorrow, if she turns up then. The casework manager agrees. Wow, a whole afternoon to catch up on my notes and begin the casework I had planned last week. 4.30pm, Monday The computer only crashes once and so by 4:30pm it really looks like I might get to the golf course that afternoon. Then I hear the call from the intake worker - ''level one''. Another report on the case that we had just briefed on that morning. The police were at the house. They had arrested dad and were waiting on an ambulance for mum. They had the two children, who weren't physically hurt, but they were both distressed and we would need to find a placement. 5.15pm, Monday The house is a mess but the children are settled with the two police officers. Dad has already been taken off to be charged. Mum is a mess in all ways. She is drunk, distressed and beaten black and blue. Well, actually ''red'' at this stage from the bleeding. It is not an appropriate time to interview the mum, so we just let her know the children are going into the care of Community Services and give her the paperwork. She is too sore and drunk to protest. We sit down and talk with the eight-year-old girl, who happily recounts the violence. She is excited now that she is going for a ''sleepover''. Back at the office, the dreaded search for a placement option begins. It is now a bigger nightmare than ever. Most of our carers have been transferred to the NGO sector but the people who arrange those placements have gone home and often don't have any solutions. We pull up our old list of carers and start ringing around. The first carer I call is not impressed; she had asked to be taken off the list a year ago. The next few don't answer,[url=http://www.michael-good.ca]michael kors canada[/url], so in the end we start ringing the old faithfuls who can always take ''one more'', and finally one of them does. The carer lives nearly an hour out of town. 5pm, Tuesday So, nearing the end of Tuesday, I complete my story of Monday, which I have to record for the children's court, due on Thursday. And then I plan the week ahead. On Wednesday I have to formally interview both parents, check whether the manager was able to contact our solicitor and alert them to the application, check in with the carer, who has now agreed to care for the eight-year-old for one more night as the baby is in hospital, check up on the search for a new placement,[url=http://www.michael-good.ca]Michael Kors Purses[/url], send my first draft of the completed care application to the solicitor for review … and on Friday I start again on the notes from Monday, and wonder whether our student will brave a second week.
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