I don’t know how many people have heard this case outside of NY but here is the gist of this situation. A woman, Leatrice Brewer, killed her three children, a girl and two boys, six and under, this past Sunday. The woman had a history (apparently) of mental health issues and criminal records. However, none of this was shared with the social services agency assigned to this case. Because of this, when the agency assigned to the case never believe that the children were any imminent danger. So when a visit wasn’t completed that Saturday, it was rescheduled for Sunday. By Sunday morning those kids were dead and now the supervisor at the agency is all but being hung out to dry.
I do agree that there is definitely a degree of personal responsibility that this man has to face. He failed those kids in a major way by ordering a delay but I don’t think that he should be held responsible for all of this. This makes me worried as well as angry because that very well could be me or one of my co-workers in that situation. We do work with populations very similar to this, with families that are just as messed up as these and it very easily could have been one of us that wound up in this situation. That frustrates and scares me at the same time.
Since the story has come to light, my supervisor has been on a kick forcing out to the homes more than normal. And I can’t say that I blame her. There is a severe lack of communication between ACS and small prevention agencies. That lack of communication is what leads to incidents like these. But its not ACS that gets caught in the crossfire, its supervisors and staff at these agencies that are getting the blame. I’ve only been with my agency going on a month now and I’ve come up across some of the most incompetent people working at ACS. And its these people who hold my client’s future in their hands. Its ridiculous how unmotivated some of them are. That is until something like this happens and all of a sudden the ACS worker is very quick to place the blame on someone else.
