CCDCFS’s McCafferty wins national award, with two other Ohioans in child welfare

I wish had more time to write about this, but for those of you who know me from before I was a writer (not all that many of the blog readers, I’m afraid), you can trust me when I say that this is really an extraordinary achievement. You read about the Robert Hawkinses and you think that someone failed him somewhere. But until you’ve worked in this area of human services, you may never understand just how heartbreaking - and that’s an understatement - it is when you come across a child custody-mental health care case like his.

Adoption Excellence Awards for 2007

Congratulations to all the winners, but also to the other two Ohioans:

Jane Robertson of the Lorain County Children Services (which has seen some extremely tough times over the last twenty years) and

Gayle Hahn of the Tuscarawas County Job & Family Services.

Out of 15 recipients, three are from Ohio. When it comes to rankings and where we place, the work these folks do might end up having more to do with how we should judge ourselves than anything else.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:05 pm December 11th, 2007 in Social Issues, Health Care, Mental health, Ohio, Announcements, Culture, Parenting

Comments

5 Responses to “CCDCFS’s McCafferty wins national award, with two other Ohioans in child welfare”

1 Mary Erne, Jr. on July 21st, 2008 1:25 pm

It’s amazing how someone from the Cuyahoga County Department of Child and Family Services could win any award other than one for having a truely screwed up system full of people that love to flaunt their power and use it to cover their ass instead of helping the family and do what’s best for the child. My family has been mentally and emotionally abused by CCDCFS and they seem to have an undying desire to get us out of the life of my adopted brother.

We cannot find an attorney that doesn’t tell us that “they’re untouchable” “you just have to deal with it” or “there’s nothing you can do about it”, so, all we can do is sit back and take the abuse that they dish out to us. Things have been out of hand for quite a while and getting worse.

How can Mr. McCafferty win this award when he allows his employees to abuse the adoptive and foster parents that are taking care of the children that come through his organization?
2 Jill Miller Zimon on July 24th, 2008 5:11 pm

Mary, you wrote, “My family has been mentally and emotionally abused by CCDCFS and they seem to have an undying desire to get us out of the life of my adopted brother.

We cannot find an attorney that doesn’t tell us that “they’re untouchable” “you just have to deal with it” or “there’s nothing you can do about it”, so, all we can do is sit back and take the abuse that they dish out to us. Things have been out of hand for quite a while and getting worse.”

I can’t address your specific case, but I can tell you that there are state laws that provide immunity to state agencies like DCFS - it’s not 100% absolute but it is pretty iron-clad in a variety of cases - so whomever is giving that info to you isn’t making it up.

I hope you’ve contacted the county ombuds who handles complaints related to DCFS - it exists (or at least used to) specifically for cases related to DCFS and its relations with clients. A gentleman named Steve Wertheim used to be in that position but I think he’s moved on. If you google “Cuyahoga County” and “Ombuds” you should be able to find contact info.
3 Mary Erne, Jr. on July 29th, 2008 3:21 pm

Jill, thank you for your assistance, it is much appreciated.
4 Jill Miller Zimon on July 29th, 2008 10:10 pm

Well, good luck - there are situations that have little ability to get redress, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to exhaust all the options - esp. as a parent, I understand that. Keep us posted.
5 Mary Erne, Jr. on July 30th, 2008 1:27 pm

Thanks, I’ll let you know what happens.