Being Aware

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, so I decided to look into the child abuse problem we have in Montgomery County. I called The Division of Family and Children to find out how the department works. The supervisor’s name is Amy Wals. She first explained what happens when a call is made to them reporting child abuse. If it is a serious report, the case is assigned to one of our only 16 caseworkers. If the report is made about a child being neglected, the caseworker then has up to five days to begin an investigation. I realize that procedures are procedures but a child could easily die in this amount of time. If the report comes and it is an accusation of a child in immediate danger, the caseworker has 24 hours to just make contact with the family in question. This disturbed me greatly. The child is in danger and is waiting to be rescued and all they do is call ahead to warn the family in question. Between the months of January 2007 and December 2007 there was an average of 88 reports made each month. The supervisor did not have record of exactly how many children were actually removed from their homes. Another large problem we have is the fact that there are approximately 40,000 people in Montgomery County, yet there are only 14 foster families. Of these 14 families most are either full or no longer accepting children. It takes only about four weeks to become a licensed family, but it takes a big heart and hard work to open your house to children in need. In the case that a child would need removed from their home and there was no available placement, the child in question would then be transported to a different county. Unfortunately, other neighboring counties have the same problem we have, no placement. With the lack of foster homes in this county or should I say state, you would think Indiana would have some type of solution. I thought the state might possibly have some children’s shelter for these innocent victims to await proper placement, but no. There is only one in the entire state called The Guardians Home and of course, it is full. I believe politicians don’t care to spend money for children because children don’t vote so therefore, they don’t count. Politicians mostly address inner city kids because that is what they directly see. These children at least have a little advantage over abused country kids. The inner city kids might be able to make it to a soup kitchen or get to a police officer. In the country there is no one around to hear the screams.