The Brussels Post, 1972-10-25, Page 632-oz. 75C
HAYWARD'S
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ASSORTED COLORS CANDY
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LIBERAL
COMMITTEE
ROOMS
in
BRUSSELS
in the Interest of
Charlie Thomas
PHONE anon 887-6125
For INFORMATION & TRANSPORTATION
ON ELECTION DAY.
Polls open from 8 a.m. to 7an.
Children's al,
'The child in
emphasizes
Hiis 'own home'
This is Children's Aid.
Week in Huron County,. and the
County's Children's Aid Society
is, taking an active part in bring-
ing the message of its services,
and the needs of children and
families before the public.
Bruce Heath, local director
of the CAS, outlined sortie Of
the trends and service changes
taking place in the Society's work
in the County.
"if we were to be asked what
the CAS has been doing in the
last year to underscore its ser-
vice to the public, " indicated
Mr. Heath, "I would say it has
been a combination of two em-
phasizes. Pulling all stops te
prevent children coming into
care, and beefing up our services
to families and children living
with their parents. No community
or Children's Aid Society should
take pride in announcing that it
has 'Ix" number of children in
its care. Todoso would be im-
plicit acknowledgment of its
failure as a community - with the
CAS as the legal agent of that
community - to provide alterna-
tives to removal of children from
their homes. We cannot emph-
asize too strongly the need to
build on the strengths of families
rather than the weaknesses, and
build on those strengths in pre-
ference to underlining the weak-
nesses.
In the majority of family
situations coming to our
attention, we are not talking about
the overtly neglectful parent at
all, but. rather situations where
the family unit can be improved
and strengthened. Mr. Heath
said and added '‘I would go fur-
ther and say that it would even
be preferable to leave a child in
a 'marginally poor' family situa-
tion than to remove him because
of what separation can do to harm
both parent and child. Even where
circumstances dictate that a child
must come into our cwre, our
planning is geared to return the
child to his home as quickly as
possible. Where long term care
is needed, or permanent separat-
ion of parent and child is seen
as the only alternative, the de-
cision to do so is the result of a
great deal of professional soul-
searching and due process °flaw
before our Family Court
Judge."
Last Sunday, all the churches
in the County received bulletin
covers or inserts outlining a few
facets of the CAS and its work.
It stressed the responsibility of
people to become involved in the
work of the Society and to report
situations to the CAS where a
person feels a child is facing
extreme neglect or possible
abuse. "I am still amazed at
how people will rationalize their
failure to report serious neglect
problems to a CAS," he noted.
',The Law requires people to
report child abuse, and the same
Law protects the person acting
in good faith who reports the
abuse. Even where people do
report serious situations to us,
there is often unwillingness to
come forward for court purposes
and present the personal evidence
which may be needed for a judge
to render a finding to protect the
child. One of the most tragic
situations in my work in CAS
occurred a few years ago in
Hamilton where a child died from
physical abuie in an apartment
building not fifty feet from the
Society's office. At the inquest
which followed, person after per-
son testified about their suspic-
ions and knowledge of the abuse
over a six month period and yet
not one had ventured across the
Mrs. D. Bartliff (left), President, Huron County Children's Aid Society congratulates Mr.
and Mrs. Stewart Dolmage, R.R.#2, Seaforth, who were honoured this week for their fifteen
years service as fosterparents for the County Children's Aid. Society.
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earlier trends, I could only
anticipate our costs skyrocket-
ing, and we would be forced to
return to a band-aid service to
families which was often the case
in previous years", he said.
',Even at present, we have noted
some management problems in
coping with a thirty percent in-
crease in services to families in
the space of one year. It cost
the Society slightly under ten
thousand dollars last year to
field one social worker but if we
were to eliminate the placement
of even four children in foster
homes or one child in a treat-
ment centre for even one year,
then I would think the provision
of family service staff has been
money well spent."
Wood is stronger in tension
than in compression.
SOO
• • 2-lb. 8-oz. 990 (
3 lbs. 1.35
4 for 1.00
problems are both particularly
imPortant, and do much to
prevent problems from reaching
a stage where the situation is
hopeless, and we are forced to
render an emergency service
with little hope of resolving
problems and getting the family
back on an even keel,
As a Society, we are en-
couraged by the growing trend of
parents approaching us in the
first instance and requesting
help. in a recent study in the
Society, we ascertained that 3 6%
of our family cases were self-
referred." (Relative and neigh-
bours account for 36% of refer-
rals - many with the active co-
" operation of parents - police
for 11%, public health - 10%,
schools, health and welfare agen-
cies, and other professionals for
17%.
This continuing emphasis, on
the child within the family unit
has seen the County Society's
children in care population re-
duced to sixty-eight children at
the end of September.
"We reached a peak in the
summer of 1970 with one hundred
twenty-two children in care, and
this number has been reducing
since that time," Mr. Heath
noted. "A year ago, ninety-
six children were in care. Of
course, related to this child care
reduction is the fact that many
fewer children are on adoption
probation - at the end of Sept-
ember only five children as com-
pared to seventeen a year ago.
A. year ago also, there were
thirteen children from other
Children's AidSocieties on adop-
tion placement with us, whereas
this September such placements
were down to four children."
He said that although the
CAS must intervene in some
family situations and actually
apprehend children, or facilitate
a planned consent admission into
care, these placements must be
kept to only situations warrant-
ing same or the CAS would be
doing a disservice to the families
and children we serve's and to the
community at large who support
us by their tax dollars and volun-
tary donations. Placement of
children becomes a fairly expen-
sive proposition when you
examine actual costs.
Last year of an actual operat-
ing cost of $261,194 our child
costs, when you apportion your
social work and administration
overhead percentage, totalled
$216,424 or about five out of every
six dollars. The annual cost of
keeping a child in boarding place-
ment when you total direct fees,
other direct costs, and social
service overhead approximates
$2,300; this increases to $2,800
for receiving home or obser-
vation home placement , and to
$8,000 for the specialized treat-
ment centre. "'If our child care
population were to return to
Street to express his concern,
and seek CAS intervention."
The church bulletin also em-
phasiSed the need to encourage
parents with problems to be
referred to the Society for coun-
selling and assistance, and par-
ticularly when problems are first
arising. "The sympathetic con-
cern of a friend, relative or
neighbour, and the encourage-
ment to seek help with family
6—THE BRUSSELS Oost, OCTOBER 25, 1972