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Child abuse major issue in Marion County

Marion County Children Services · April 4, 2016 ·

Child abuse major issue in Marion County

Andrew Carter, Reporter 5:07 p.m. EDT April 2, 2016
635951426365958213-Mar-Pinwheels01.JPG

(Photo: Matthew Hatcher/ The Marion Star)

MARION – In observance of April’s designation as Child Abuse Prevention Month, employees from Marion County Children Services have planted 863 pinwheels in the front yard of the agency along Marion-Waldo Road. Each pinwheel represents a safety assessment conducted by agency staff in 2015 related to a report of child abuse.

While the pinwheels may look pretty spinning in the breeze on a spring afternoon, the reason they’ve been placed there is a stark reminder that child abuse in all of its forms is still a pressing issue. According to The Ohio Family Violence Prevention Project, there are 81,608 cases of child abuse investigated each year across the state.

Placement Services Supervisor Francis Hernandez said while Marion County Children Services workers are devoted to the agency’s mission “to lead the community in the protection of children by working with families to promote, develop, and maintain safe and permanent homes,” the sheer number of children and families they deal with on annual basis is nearly overwhelming at times.

“In 2015, we served 1,939 children and their families in Marion County,” Hernandez, who has worked for Children Services for 20 years, said. “What that breaks down to is that we served one out of every seven kids in the county. Last year was very busy for us.”

Hernandez said the 863 safety assessments performed in 2015 is the highest total in her two decades with Children Services. She said assessments were broken down into the following categories: neglect, 464; physical abuse, 213; sexual abuse, 149; emotional maltreatment, 23; and dependency/family in need, 14.

In 2014, the agency served 1,534 children and families, equating to one out of nine children in Marion County. Staff members performed 640 safety assessments, revealing the following results by category: neglect, 359; physical abuse, 160; sexual abuse, 92; emotional maltreatment, 10; and dependency/family in need, 19.

“The largest majority of our kids came into custody last year due to substance abuse,” she said. “In Marion County, as we all know, we have a large number of opiate addictions, so our numbers are supporting what we’re seeing happen in the community.” Hernandez said most of the neglect cases are related to substance abuse by adults in the home.

According to Hernandez, in 2015, 101 children had to be taken into agency custody and placed in foster care. Seventy-four were placed with family or friends. In 2014, 88 children were placed in foster care, while 99 were placed with family or friends.

​Hernandez said while caseworkers have reported that children brought into the local foster care system are facing a wide range of issues, the children are also being provided care that they may not have experienced previously.

“We see a lot of delays in their education and they struggle with just the normalcy of family settings,” she said. “But I see a lot of these kids flourishing in foster care because of the stability within the foster homes and the consistency with them having a routine.”

Executive Director Jacqueline Ringer said Children Services’ goal is to work with families for the benefit of the children.

“Families today are dealing with increased needs and a complexity of issues,” she said. “We are focusing our efforts on working jointly with families to identify concerns and find solutions to ensure child safety. By allowing the family to lead the process, their willingness to participate in services aimed at strengthening and supporting their family increases. While we continue to learn more about ways to engage families, we remain steadfast in our belief that supporting families by ensuring they have proper knowledge, skills and resources is the best form of prevention of future child maltreatment. We have an understanding of where we are and where we want to be and child safety remains our primary concern.”

Hernandez said Children Services is inviting the community to join in the observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month by participating in two events. She said local residents are encouraged to take part in Wear Blue on April 13. Participants are asked to take photos of themselves with family members, co-workers or friends and post them to Facebook with the hashtags #WearBlue2016 and #marionkids. Photos also can be emailed to moreinfo@marionkids.com.

The Pinwheels for Prevention initiative kicked off last week and will wrap up with Pinwheel Play Day on April 30. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the agency’s campus. It is free and open to the public.

Children Services offers child abuse and neglect training for the public. The training is provided at no cost for Marion County residents. For details about the child abuse and neglect training sessions, contact Erin Turner at 740-386-0428 or Erin.Turner@jfs.ohio.gov.

For information about Marion County Children Services, visit the website www.marionkids.com. The agency maintains a Facebook page and a Twitter account, @Marion_Kids.

eacarter@gannett.com

740-375-5154

Twitter: @AndrewCarterMS

 

 

http://www.marionstar.com/story/news/2016/04/02/child-abuse-major-issue-marion-county/82442674/

Parents’ Drug Abuse Strains Child-Welfare Agencies

Marion County Children Services · January 15, 2016 ·

Parents’ Drug Abuse Strains Child-Welfare Agencies

Growing epidemic puts more children into foster care

By Jon Kamp andArian Campo-Flores

Updated Jan. 12, 2016 12:04 a.m. ET

 

Steve and Fawn Kippenberg said they hit many lows in their decade-long battle with pain-pill and heroin addiction. The Ohio couple was evicted from multiple homes. Both contracted hepatitis C from injecting drugs with dirty needles.

Steve Kippenberg, center, kisses his daughter, Tori, this past weekend at their home in Batavia, Ohio. Steve and his wife, Fawn, left, were addicted to pills and heroin and temporarily lost custody of their four children. Photo: Joshua A. Bickel for The Wall Street Journal

But nothing compares to the day that child-protective-services workers knocked on their door and took three of their children into custody because of safety concerns. The children were away for several months while the couple worked to get clean. “My whole world dropped right there,” said Mr. Kippenberg, 42 years old. “That was my rock bottom.”

Abuse of opioids like heroin and prescription painkillers is straining child-welfare agencies across the U.S. and sending more children into foster care, officials say. Addiction treatment for opioids only occasionally succeeds, relapse is common and children often languish for years in the system.

The number of children in foster care nationwide as of September 2014 rose 3.5% from a year earlier to 415,129, according to the latest data collected by the Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The national data don’t specifically measure how many children land in foster care as a result of their parents’ drug use, but some state and local officials say opioid addiction is likely contributing to the increase. The epidemic is being fueled by the overprescribing of pain pills coupled with a cheap and abundant supply of heroin, drug experts say.

In Vermont, opioid use was a factor in 80% of cases in which a child under the age of 3 was taken into custody, according to one state survey. The number of children under the custody of the Department for Children and Families as of last September grew 40% from two years earlier to 1,373, driven mainly by parental opioid addiction, according to Gov. Peter Shumlin. The Democrat unveiled a proposal last month to beef up the state’s child-welfare system.

According to the Vermont DCF, the state looks first for an appropriate relative who can care for children taken away from parents abusing opioids. If relatives aren’t an option, the state places the children with foster families.

The Indiana Department of Child Services added 459 family case managers in the past two years to help handle a rising tide of cases. The agency estimates 2,600 children had to be removed from homes due to parental drug abuse in a six-month period that ended last March, a 71% jump from two years earlier. “I don’t think anybody expected the explosion of heroin,” said agency director Mary Beth Bonaventura.

Cases involving parental opioid addiction are particularly complex, said Susan Kovac, regional general counsel at the Knox County Department of Children’s Services in Tennessee, which has been grappling with a surge of cases tied in part to opioids. As in many parts of the country, demand for treatment services outstrips supply. For those who get into a program, recovery rates are low, she said.

Another problem, Ms. Kovac said: Because opioid addiction often afflicts numerous members of a family, it can be difficult to find temporary caregivers among a child’s loved ones. That increases the likelihood a child will have to be put in foster care, resulting in higher costs for child-welfare agencies.

Data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services show that cases involving parents who use heroin or cocaine take longer to close, and are reopened at a faster rate, than those involving parents who aren’t on either drug. Because opioid cases often involve crisis situations, they tend to take priority, forcing other cases “to take a back seat,” said Angela Sausser, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

In response, some states are trying to summon more resources. Mr. Shumlin’s plan in Vermont calls for adding 28 social workers and one superior court judge, among other positions. The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services recently requested 52 more investigators.

Ohio has created 20 family dependency treatment courts that offer an alternative judicial track for parents dealing with drug addiction. One is in Clermont County, just east of Cincinnati, where about 70% of the child-welfare cases are drug-related, according to Timothy Dick, assistant director of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services.

Among them is the Kippenbergs’. The couple entered the program shortly after losing custody of their children in September 2014. As a result, they must comply with the court’s rigorous demands: weekly appearances before a judge initially, regular drug tests and enrollment in treatment programs. The Kippenbergs say they have been clean for 16 months and expect to graduate soon from the program.

Last March, they regained custody of their three children, as well as a fourth who had been staying with a relative. They just celebrated their first sober Christmas as a family in years, with turkey, fudge and plenty of presents.

“You should be very proud of what you’ve accomplished,” they said their case workers told them. “Because it’s rare.”

Write to Jon Kamp at jon.kamp@wsj.com and Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com

Arian Campo-Flores
STAFF REPORTER
M: +1 305 773 0773   O: +1 305 735 9445
E: Arian.Campo-Flores@wsj.com
T: @acampoflores

Time Change Announced for December Board Meeting

Marion County Children Services · December 8, 2015 ·

The time of the regular meeting of the Marion County Children Services Board has been changed. The board will meet at 11:00 a.m. on December 18, 2015 at Marion County Children Services.

Meetings are held at Marion County Children Services every 3rd Friday of the month at noon unless otherwise posted. The public is welcome to attend.

2016 meetings are scheduled for the following dates:

January 15th
February 19th
March 18th
April 15th
May 20th
June 17th
July 15th
August 19th
September 16th
October 21st
November 18th
December 16th

It takes a village to beat addiction

Marion County Children Services · June 16, 2014 ·

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Pinwheel Play Day Article

Marion County Children Services · April 23, 2014 ·

MS 4-23-14

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