Child vs Family 2 (thank you safe passage for children of MN)

This article from Safe Passage for Children bears repeating;

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) research shows that abuse disrupts children’s brain development in ways that often aren’t reversible. This is a reason for county child protection agencies to remove children from abusive situations. But there are also benefits to keeping children at home.

Historically counties favored keeping families intact, sometimes despite serious ongoing abuse. Today they are giving child safety more weight. But we still basically have a bad either/or choice: remove children or leave them at risk.

We need services that keep children in stable settings while preserving relationships with parents and fostering safe reunions. Concepts that have surfaced include supportive community residences where parents and children live together, and foster care with a parent mentoring component.

Experimenting with ideas like these could resolve this child vs family dilemma. Join this Safe Passage Discussion on Facebook

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Minnesota Child Protection News August 2016

  KARA gathers news about abused Minnesota’s abused children every month and works to provide a snapshot of Child Protection and how our state values its children. If you are an aspiring writer/reporter, KARA needs you to help gather and report on these stories.  Contact mike@invisiblechildren.org with REPORTING in the subject line. All Adults Are…

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Children Feeling Betrayed (thank you Safe Passage for Children & PBS)

Children who are badly abused sometimes seek help from teachers, extended family, or social workers. When they get none they feel profoundly betrayed by adults. This can have lifelong consequences for the children and society, as this PBS story illustrates.

Today’s dominant political view is that children are nearly always better off with their families. This creates systemic pressures to leave children where they are even when abuse is extreme.

Decisions should be based on each child’s best interests. Children shouldn’t be vehicles for the politics of ideology, culture or race. They don’t care about these things. They just want the pain to end.

Children don’t participate in policy-making. Their interests can only be factored into child protection practices by adults who comprehend their anguish and speak out for them.

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Important Child Protection News From Safe Passage For Children – Outside Review Needed

Representatives of counties and the Department of Human Services recently presented the Minnesota legislature with a revised plan for implementing the Governor’s Child Protection Task Force recommendations. It proposed $500,000 for an already agreed-upon outside review of screening practices (Recommendation #25).

This price tag could discourage legislators from funding the project. But the actual cost would probably be under $100,000 – more like $25K.

The review would address issues that are blocking progress on other recommendations, including whether to continue interviewing children in front of their alleged abusers. It would also provide a framework for developing a fact-finding protocol, which workers would be trained in to determine the most appropriate child protection response.

We encourage the Department to include this review in their 2017 budget using the most accurate number possible.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

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MN Child Protection News July 2016

Hundreds of Minnesota teens confined, abused for no … – Star Tribune

www.startribune.com/confined…teenager…minnesota…/389387061/

Star Tribune

4 days ago – Confined without charges, a teenager’s ordeal reveals strains within … Hundreds of Minnesota teens with mental health problems are winding …

Moms emerge as force for change at Minn. state mental … – Star Tribune

www.startribune.com/mothers…as-a…minnesota…mental…/388084502/

Star Tribune

Jul 24, 2016 – Mothers emerge as a force for change at Minnesota state mental hospital … to advocate for their sons who are psychiatric patients at the hospital Tuesday, July …. Delta cancels hundredsmore flights in wake of Monday outage · Lynx head off … A black teenager encounters racism in the Twin Cities suburbs.

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Minnesota’s Back Story; Treating Children’s Mental Health

Today’s Star Tribune article (thank you Chris Serres) exposing the violence done to Minnesota’s youngest citizens while in state care reminded me of my own experiences growing up.

In my middle class 1977 neighborhood, the family next door’s 15 year old grandson became psychotic and behaved dangerously.

Mom and dad tried to find him mental health help to no avail.

The only option that provided treatment for their son was the Juvenile Justice system. The boy’s entrance into the system required he be charged with a crime. Their son killed himself a few years later.

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Minnesota At Risk Children’s News June 2016

Child Victims Act expires, but effects remain to be seen

Duluth News Tribune

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court reported that 125 abuse claims were filed … It’s been a little more than a week since the Minnesota Child Victims Act …

Sacred Heart sued in clergy sexual abuse case dating back to 1960s

Grand Forks Herald

Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks is joining a growing list of Minnesota Catholic entities sued for clergy accused of sexual abusing children.

A Minnesota school pulls bait-and-switch while pretending to protect transgender students

Daily Kos

On the surface, Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota, has … the Minnesota Family Council and the Minnesota Child Protection League to …

Man, 82, to pay four female family members $150K sexual abuse settlement

Grand Forks Herald

The lawsuit was possible because of the Minnesota Child Victim Act, a 2013 law that temporarily waived the statute of limitations in child sex abuse …

Charges: ND Woman Leaves 2 Kids In Home Without Plumbing

CBS Local

Forty-nine-year-old Antoinette Liggett recently pleaded guilty to a felony child neglect charge. Her sentence includes about four months at a re-entry …

Spike in abuse reports overwhelms Hennepin County child protection system

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Gender Pay Gap & How it Relates to Child Well – Being (see where Minneapolis ranks)

I was raised by a single mom who made a fraction of the salary that men in her office earned. It was harder in other ways for her also as overt sexism was not just tolerated, it was the rule.

It hurts me to see that today my home town is the second poorest in the nation in this study;

http://www.businessinsider.com/gender-pay-gap-in-us-cities-2016-6

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Minnesota’s Mental Health Crisis (spot on reporting by our Star Tribune – Many Thanks)

Today’s service providers are rarely capable of adequately dealing with the level of dysfunction encountered by a large and growing number of people.

They will fail to achieve the results they strive for until we the voters demand the core changes that will reverse these painful trends. These failures drive up burnout and good workers leaving the field for lack of success and very high stress (and lack of understanding appreciation from the rest of us).

Reflect on this;

The “colossal failure” of Child Protective Services” Governor Dayton’s words upon the death of 4 year old Eric Dean after 15 largely ignored reports of child abuse

MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz’ statement s that “90% of the youth in Juvenile Justice have come through Child Protection” and“ the difference between that poor child and a felon is about 8 years” are as true today as they were a few years ago when she said them. My spin on the Chief Justice’ words are that, the difference between that poor child and a preteen mother with no parenting skills, a drug problem and a violent boyfriend, is about 8 years.

2/3 of the youth in the Juvenile Justice System have diagnosable mental health issues & half of them have multiple, chronic and serious problems.

1/3 of the children in Child Protective Services are proscribed Prozac or other psychotropic medications.

20,000 one and two year olds were proscribed psychotropic medications in this nation in 2014 (Johnson & Johnson paid 4 billion dollars in fines for illegally selling these drugs to pediatricians for use on children and there are 5000 cases awaiting trial).

MN Sheriff’s had to threaten a law suit to get the state to move on providing timely mental health services for the people in their jail cells.

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Minnesota Child Protection News April & May 2016

Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson teams with Salvation Army in relief efforts for flood-ravaged …

FOXSports.com

… and the town also wrapped its collective arms around him when he missed most of the 2014 season while dealing with child abuse charges.

Claims of child maltreatment, meager staff training and inadequate programs at Mesabi Academy

Minnesota Public Radio News

Only one would take him: Mesabi Academy in Buhl, on Minnesota’s Iron … It also houses vulnerable children in need of protection from parents or …

In Minnesota, 100s Take Opportunity to Sue Over Sex Abuse

ABC News

It’s been nearly three years since Minnesota opened a path for lawsuits by victims of long-ago childhood sexual abuse. In that time, more than 800 …

Another St. John’s Priest Accused Of Abuse

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