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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-10-12, Page 9Dennis Wellwood joined Huron County's Family and Children's Services In May. He works on a child abuse team with Norma Jeffery, a social worker and RN. Since moving to Goderich with his wife, he has also become active in the newly formed Big Brothers Association here. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) ew employees at C.A. BY JOANNE • BUCHANAN Family and `Children's Services of Huron County (formerly known as the Children's Aid Society) has two relatively . new workers on its staff. CHILD ABUSE TEAM WORKER Dennis Wellwood, joined the staff in May as a social worker. He is replacing Esther Ross who retired last year and is working on a child abuse team with Norma Jeffery, a social worker and RN. Wellwood hails from Windsor and received his Bachelor of Social Work degree from King's College, University of Western Ontario, London. During his last year in the social worka ro r m P g at King's College, he received •- .practical- . ex- perience via the • Family and Children's Services of Huron County by doing community and . case work in Huron Parka Being a social worker, especially on a child abuse team, is a big responsibility, but his interest in working with familiesand especially children, had led him to own up to the task, he feels. As part of the child abuse team, Wellwood follows up alleged cases of child abuse with in- vestigations. He has a caseload of about 30 with 18 or 19 of these being termed actual abuse cases. His partner has about the same number. There are many variables in each case. Each one is unique and there is no standard formula which can be applied. One of the biggest problems is making a decision for the child --whether to leave him in his home or take him out, says Wellwood. Reports of child abuse are more frequent now as the public becomes more concerned. .Physical and sexual abuse, are easy enough.. to detect with physical examinations but there are many more children who are emotionally abused, says Wellwood and this type of abuse -is - much: more difficult to detect. A social worker, especially one working closely with_ child abuse. must be careful not to fall into the hating trap, says Wellwood. Instead, one must look closely at the whole situation, con- sidering why the parent or parents are abusive towards their children. No matterr how badly a child is abused, the social worker must still think of the parents too, says Wellwood. Evelyn MacDonald joined Huron CBunty's Family and Children's Services in July. She does marriage and family counselling and supervises four case workers, doing field work with them when she can. She has had an extensive background in every aspect of social work. One off her first part-time jobs was working as a researcher and co -therapist at Penetanguishene, Oakridge Dvisision (criminally insane building). In a Job like that you learned "how not to agitate -people" she says. (Photo. by Joanne Buchanan) r There's more to you than meets the eye We specialize in individual and family portraits that are as unique and sensitive as'their subjects. In -studio or on location, we'll "work with you to create a portrait that's honestly you. • So get your family together. Or get yourself together. Stop in today —and let's talk about your .portrait. Butdo-it now! In Time for Christmas giving Save during our special .limited Offer R.J. NEPHEW PHOTOGRAPHY tbEr MONTREAL ST. GODERICH, ONT. .524.2029 When following up report on child abuse, it i necessary to visit th home an Wellwood often meet with hostility. There ar .tactful ways to enter person's home, he says One doesn't just g barging in making ac cusations. Wellwood says he trie to work with the whol family in a child abus case. He says it's hard t measure success in hi business but he puts a lo of himself into the job an hopes this will have goo results. NEW POSITION Evelyn MacDonald joined the staff at Huro County's Family an Children's Services i July. She is not replacing anyone but is filling a new position instead. She does • • marriage- and family counselling and super- vises four case workers. Mrs. MacDonald was raised ,in Penetang and received her secondary schooling in Midland. Following high school, she was one of the first two women to work at Penetanguishene, a hospital -for „ the criminally insane. She worked as a research assistant and co -therapist there'" delving into the backgrounds of 150 patients and trying to understand what made them the way they were. In` many cases she found the common denominator was that those who were badly abused as children most likely became assaultive or murderous as adults. Mrs. MacDonald is an animal lover and at one time considered a career as a veterinarian. She owns a horse and was a member of the London Humane Society when she lived in that city. However, Mrs. MacDonald started her post secondary education at the University of Toronto in honors psychology and """sociology- Because of heti dislike for- what she calls the "rat psychology" taught at U ' of T, she transferred to the University of Western Ontario from which she graduated with a B.A., Psychology with Honors in. 1968. She received her Master of Social Work Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1970. Mrs. MacDonald has had quite an extensive background of social work experience. Aside from working at Penetanguishene, she has acted as a therapist to groups of alcoholics and drug addicts through the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, London branch. She has run therapy activities at the Women's Mission, a branch of Mission Ser- vices of London. She has been a social worker with the Barrie and • District a Children s +tu Society, s the Hamilton and Wen - he tworth County Children's d Aid Society and the s Family Services Bureau e which was merged with a the Family and • Children's Services of o Middlesex County, - London. In London also she was a social worker s with the Children's e Psychiatric Research e Institute for a year; o worked in the social s services department, of t St. Joseph's Hospital; d was chief social worker d with the City Social Services Department; and had her own social work private practice for a time. n After having been in d London for ten years, n Mrs. MacDonald is pleased to be in a more rural setting now. She find Huron County" `-`-tremendously`"in- teresting" and is very impressed with the four social workers under her supervision, Stewart - Thomson, Hazel Thompson, John Ayres and Mildred Marwick. The demands on a worker are very heavy and the 'job can be emotionally tiring, says Mrs. MacDonald. She tries to go out on cases with her workers whenever she can. Mrs. MacDonald worries about the poor image of Children's Aid Societies. She feels that they are considered an unwanted but necessary evil of our society. Social workers are doingthe best they can, she says, and each one acts as an ambassador for his or her agency when but on a case or dealing with 'people.. • Although some social workers agree that a child should be kept in his own home whenever possible, Mrs. MacDonald doesn't believe this herself. There are a lot _of people in this world who have children but shouldn't, she says. The child is not always best in his or her biological' home, feels Mrs. MacDonald and if it means recruiting more foster parents and foster homes to take more children out of dangerous home situations, that's what should be done, she says. One thing which her job at Penetanguishene taught her was how to deal tactfully with people and how to relate to them. She says you learned very quickly on a job like that "how not to agitate people". Mrs. MacDonald feels that she has learned to become a good crisis worker too, one who can figure out logical answers in emotionally upsetting situations. She is glad, she says, to be at Huron County's Family and Children's Services but says she wishes there were two more of her . _because there is so much to do. CLERK'S NOTICE OF FIRST POSTING OF PRELIMINARY LIST., The Municipal Elections Act, 1977, chapter 62, section 25 (1) and (4) Preliminary List, 1978 Town Of. Goderich County of Huron 'Notice is hereby given that I have complied with Section 25 of The Municipal Elections Act, 1977, and that I have posted up at my office at 57 West Street on the 10th day of Oc- tober, 1978 the list of all persons entitled to be\electors in the municipality at municipal election, and that such list remains there for inspection. And I hereby call upon all electors to examine the list for the purpose of making additions or corrections to or deletions from the list. •The last day for filing applications Is the 27th day of Oc- tober, 1978. „ •The place at which the revision Will commence is 57 West St., Goderich, Ont. •The time at which the revision will commence is October 10th,.1978. Dated this 10th day ©f October, 1978. • Larry J. McCabe Clerk of Goderich, Ontario 4 THE GODERICH SIGNAT, STAR;,'THURSDAY, John Penn, Director of Huron County's Family and Children's Services, agrees with Mrs. MacDonald that there is a lot to do and not enough people todo it. The Huron County agency -has the third highest workload out of all the agencies in Ontario, he says. And working for such an agency can be pretty scary sometimes, he admits. There are many decisions to be made and a bad decision can be fatal. This week the Huron County agency hired two homemakers to act as case aids to its social workers. They will be helping with visits and teaching parenting skills, budgeting, etc. Their employment was made possible through a Canada Works_grant. _� A secretary is also being hired to record more information about cases and transcribe all case conferences. "If ever we get into a situation where we have to justify what we have done, at least we'll have some recorded in- formation," explains Penn. Through help ,from the Ministry of Community and Social Services, a community child abuse worker will • be hired at the agency within the next few weeks to run an eight month project in- cluding an education program in the corn munity. This worker would be available to speak to service clubs and other groups. Penn says a demon- stration project is also being developed in which a worker will work very closely with five families, doing research and teaching parenting skills at the same time. This project is being developed in conjunction with Guelph University. Huron County doesn't get many classical abuse cases, feels Penn, but even mild abuse is not mild for a child. One thing which may help the child abuse situation, he feels, is that the in- creased rights of the child are being reflected in new legislation. Meanwhile, all the Family and Children's Services agencies and their workers can do is keep trying their best to monitor bad situations, work closely with the families who need help and try to prevent bad situations before they happen. f R 12 iC 6' SpcifSavers Open to % beds Upholstered in various plaids 4 ONLY 9 • EA, BLACKSTONE FURNITURE West Street, Goderich, Just Off The Square Won't you pk.asegout old newspapers? C ROTARY NEWSPAPER PICK-UP SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14th Please have your old newspapers on boulevard by 10:00 A.M. when collec- tion starts. LAST COLLECTION OF 1978 Proceeds to community projects GODERICH ROTARY CLUB r. TOY CANADA'S MORE TOY THAN — ONLY 50 LOCATIONS LIQUIDATORS E DISCOUNT R - •-- TOY TO AMA �-�-�'��, CHAIN SERVE WITH YOU LTD. SAVE UP TO 1 7 0 ON NAME BRAND TOTS *MATTEL •PARKER •COLECO •ROMPER ROOM MILTON BRADLEY BOARD GAMES VALUE 29 9 TO •5.95 • 'TONKA' HEAVY GAUGE TRUCKS RUCK O TALT RUCK '1.99 S1UPER 79 • BALUE EDU-CARD GAMES 4 FLA51 ALSO 57 CARDS WHILE THEY LAST HAND PUPPETS ONLY 994 SNOOPY & PEANUTS RAGVALUES DOLLS COMPARE ANYWHERE 29 STAR WARS POSTERS LIST 994 LINDBERG MODEL KITS TO 1 79 '3.99 • COWBOYS 8 INDIANS 4,154 "MATTEL" KNITTING MACHINE AS SEEN *KNIT AFGHANS MFG. •PILLOWS ON T.V. •BLANKETS LIST 9 9 95 9 • ONLY • "MATTEL BEAUTY BARBIE CENTRE • 99 STYLE HER HAIR IN SECONDS PEGGITY PONY EXCLUSIVE RIDE 'M TOY, TOYERAMA PRICE WITH CLICKING ACTION$ 9 9 MOVEABLE TONGUE ' • SNOOPY PURSE $249 249 FOR LITTLE • GIRLS SUPER VALUE COLOURING 8 STORY 4i$1 B®®K• LIST 59' EA. PARKER BROS. GAMESBARNEY MILLER 3 99 LAVERNE & • Reg. SHIRLEY°7.99 OLYMPIC SPORTS .a 1978 CHAIN STORE FIGURESPRICE PKGS.O 1. PKG. 24 ASSORTED TO PKG. . OPEN DAILY TILL 6 P.M. THURS. FRI. TILL 4 P.M. GODERICH SHOPPING CENTRE No. $ Hwy. (Across from Shaeffer Pen) GODERICH. ONT. LAY AWAY NOW FCR A. s 216 GODERICH ST. PORT ELGIN , • HWY. NO. 4 ZEHR'S PLAZA EXETER LISTOWEL r.