Texas school shooting

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Even though you already did it I'm going to say do it.


Uh-oh, those are where I was born and where I now live ...



Sounds like a plan.
Now to figure out how to get this society to value and desire it ...
And to figure out how to get enough qualified people to be the ones making it happen ...

The cynical and discouraged part of me sees intense conflict arising over the precise details of which ethics to teach, enough conflict to derail the entire thing.

Yes, I also believe that parenting classes should be mandatory; but how to apply the mandate?

• Take the classes or else no babies?

• Take the classes or else the babies you have had get taken away?

• Take the classes and be regarded as less at fault for the child's anti-social behavior?

I favor the third option.  Imagine Johnny is a Hell-raising teenager, who is finally brought before the Juvenile Court Magistrate for his crimes.  Without having taken the classes, his parents would face penalties under civil and criminal law; but if they had already taken the classes (yearly, perhaps), then their responsibilities would be mitigated or eliminated entirely, and Johnny would bear the full burden and penalties as decided by the courts.

This is a utopian fantasy, I know.

Imagine even a third of the money spent on our industrial military complex spent on early intervention
imagine free mental healthcare for minors and early parents . The amount of money saved would be great even enough to create huge amounts of trained positions in the mental health industry .
All these concepts merely based on ideas of cause and effect .
Consider some the money we are giving to other countries in the name of development and foriegn aide plowed back into our own countries efforts to create early well being for children .

@ Fnord ..
if there us non compliance by the parents or habitual poor behaviour or attendance by the child
perhap the social worker/ mental pro . As a result would make it manditory for the family go have to deal with increased weekly visits by these workers.Most people do not prefer increased scrutiny
into their lives, so compliance might be encouraged ?

Officially, this is already the case.  Unofficially, however, Child Welfare case workers are stretched way past their capabilities, often having to deal with dozens of new cases each week (so I have been told by a former Los Angeles County case worker).  This means, in addition to the cases they are already handling, they are required to visit each family and make an on-the-spot assessment in just a few minutes' time!

What happens if they observe a healthy home environment in which everybody is getting along, and even the children have no complaints?  The case gets tagged for future review, which may never happen.

And if they see something suspicious?  The next visit will be with the cops and a warrant, IF they can convince a judge that the case merits intervention, and IF the family is home when the police arrive.

Now, if a child shows up at a hospital with obviously abuse-induced injuries, THEN the police are likely to get involved immediately, and the child will be placed under foster care while the parent(s) get arrested.

Maybe.

The only drills we had were tornado and fire.I can’t even wrap my mind around going to school and worrying about getting shot.
I am so glad my kids are grown.

Oh, it is official and even published by universities and the government.
And has been for decades.

For instance;

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/668817
"
journal article
Burnout in Child Welfare: The Role of Employment Characteristics and Workplace Opportunities
Sarah Font
Social Service Review
Vol. 86, No. 4 (December 2012), pp. 636-659 (24 pages)
Published By: The University of Chicago Press
"

And more recently,

https://www.fpaws.org/the-sounding-boar ... ce-crisis/

"
The Sounding Board: The Child Welfare Workforce Crisis
February 14, 2022 Jac Fitzgerald

This month’s Sounding Board discusses responses to a child welfare workload crisis in which high turnover rates have been followed by an increase in unfilled vacancies. This commentary suggests a range of incentives and changes in managerial practices to meet this challenge.

January 2022

Most (but not all) public child welfare systems have had a high caseworker turnover rate for decades, retention issues that have become worse during recent years. Prior to the pandemic, a news story reported that the annual turnover among Florida’s CPS investigators was 48%. A 2019 news release asserted that Missouri’s child welfare system had an 80% caseworker turnover rate! The story stated that the average salary of Missouri’s child welfare caseworkers in 2019 was $30,000.

These are extremely high turnover rates, but loss of 25-40% of caseworker staff has been common in public agencies for decades. For years, workforce development initiatives focused on increasing retention rates given that the development of child welfare professionals largely depends on experience. MSW programs are valuable, but graduate level education in child welfare is just the first step in developing professional skills and knowledge. I question whether students learn much about child protection in BSW/MSW programs and practicums.

In recent years, a retention challenge in child welfare has morphed into a recruitment challenge. A 2018 story in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, a newspaper in North Carolina, reported that “Wilkes DSS Director John Blevins said Wilkes DSS is struggling to keep social workers more than two years … and now “just getting them to come through the door” to apply for available jobs is hard.” A consultant who has worked with several state child welfare systems during recent years sent me an email stating:

“ … turnover is high almost everywhere I look … Agencies have trouble hiring and, when they do, new entries often leave before they even finish preservice training, indicating that they didn’t really want the job in the first place … Things stabilized in the middle of the pandemic for obvious reasons, but it was high before and is now going back up.”
"

See also: From US Department of Health and Human Services,

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/man ... secondary/
"
Secondary Traumatic Stress
Secondary traumatic stress (STS) can occur when a professional experiences high stress or symptoms of trauma when working with people who have experienced trauma that mimic posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. People with careers in the helping professions, like child welfare workers and child welfare-related professionals, are particularly vulnerable to experiencing STS. The following resources provide further understanding of what STS is, its impact, how to identify symptoms, and how it can be prevented and mitigated on an individual and organizational level.
"

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/man ... g/burnout/
"
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Secondary Traumatic Stress

Child welfare professionals are susceptible to burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress. It is important to recognize that some sources link these experiences as the same. While they are interrelated and often have similar symptoms, understanding their distinctiveness can be key to identifying and proposing solutions to address them. Burnout refers to a state of physical, mental, and/or emotional exhaustion caused by excessive or prolonged stress. It can lead to a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Compassion fatigue refers to the physical and mental exhaustion and emotional withdrawal experienced over an extended period of time by those in the helping professions. It can lead to apathy or indifference toward the suffering of others. In contrast, compassion satisfaction is the fulfillment experienced from helping others. Secondary traumatic stress can occur when a professional experiences high stress or symptoms of trauma that mimic posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms when working with people who have experienced trauma. The following resources expand upon these definitions, address the challenges professionals face considering them, and present possible solutions.

Burnout
Secondary traumatic stress

Beyond Quick Fixes: What Will It Really Take to Improve Child Welfare in America? Paper Two: Caseworkers Are First Responders. They Deserve the Same Professionalization as Other Essential Personnel (PDF - 323 KB)
Payne (2014)
Public Consulting Group, Inc.
Explores the current status of child protection services in the United States and proposes to address its challenges, emphasizing the importance of the child welfare caseworker while making the case for further professionalization of caseworkers. Recommendations to elevate caseworkers to the status and comparable benefits of other first responders are made, with relief for secondary traumatic stress being one of those benefits.

Positive Psychology and Well-Being of Child Welfare Workers: Three Part Series [Video]
Krentzman & Tinetti (2016)
University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare
Trains child welfare workers on understanding and implementing strategies to reduce burnout and compassion fatigue through a three-part, well-being-focused video series.

Predictors of Compassion Fatigue in Mental Health Professionals: A Narrative Review
Turgoose & Maddox (2017)
Traumatology, 2(23)
Highlights psychosocial factors that are related to compassion fatigue and protective factors that mitigate its effect. Factors were determined from examining 32 studies on compassion fatigue in mental health professionals. Some of the commonly associated factors related to compassion fatigue were trauma history of the professional and empathy, while protective factors found were behavioral and cognitive coping styles and mindfulness.

Note the date;

https://practicenotes.org/vol4_no3.htm
"Vol. 4, No. 3
June 1999
Turnover in Child Welfare

Turnover hurts families and children. By leaving their jobs, social workers can compound feelings of insignificance and rejection in kids already hurting from abuse and neglect.

When foster and adoptive parents quit, the effects on foster children—most of whom have already lost one family—can be devastating.

Turnover hurts agencies, too. It lowers morale, reduces efficiency, and eats up time and money as agencies seek, hire, and train new employees. And turnover prevents us from meeting our goal of one case worker or case work team for each child and family.

In this edition Practice Notes explores what researchers, practitioners, and administrators have to say about turnover in child welfare, and we present some ideas for fixing this system-wide problem. Unless we confront this issue head on, we will be unable to ensure that every foster child has a safe, loving, permanent family within one year.
"
"

Thanks, K&T&C; that all jibes with what my friend told me.

It is then understandable why nobody acted on the "Red Flags" the shooter was waving.

From Gizmodo:

There seems to be a formula for how right-wing politicians are now responding to mass shootings on social media that goes something like this:

"I am [HORRIFIED, HEARTBROKEN, ETC] at the senseless tragedy in [LOCATION] today.

We are [LIFTING THEM UP IN PRAYER, PRAYING FOR THEM] and thank the heroic efforts of [POLICE, FIRST RESPONDERS, ETC] on the scene."

That's it.  No promise that laws will be passed to help stop these mass shootings from happening again; no recognition that the U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world where mass shootings happen frequently; no acknowledgement that children in other countries don't have to participate in active shooter drills.  The only thing right-wing politicians can muster is "thoughts and prayers" and "thank God for our cops".

Read the Full Article  HERE 

Welcome.
It is a very sad thing.

There is a tremendous shortage here in Missouri.
The gal I was married to for about 6 years had been going back to college as an adult to get certified as a child social worker but then a few years before we got married in early 2000s gave school up to personally and actively do that role within her extended family.

I have had and do have friends who were in or one who is still in the business.
So I know of the thing and where to find info about it.

If more specific and recent data is desired, Google, child welfare shortage missouri

You'll get,

"
Missouri child welfare worker shortage putting lives at risk
https://www.kansascity.com › news › article258935513
Mar 16, 2022 — 'We need help': Missouri child welfare crisis puts children's lives at risk, workers say · Missouri child abuse investigators sounded the alarm ...

Missouri caseworkers 'drowning' as Children's Division ...
https://missouriindependent.com › 2022/04/05 › missou...
Apr 5, 2022 — The new Children's Division director painted a grim picture of Missouri's child welfare department that is facing severe staffing shortages.

Missouri child welfare system “beyond a crisis situation ...
https://www.kctv5.com › 2022/03/16 › missouri-child-wel...
Missouri child welfare system “beyond a crisis situation” according to court advocates.
Mar 16, 2022 · Uploaded by Abby Dodge

Advocates critical to help address staffing shortage in Missouri
https://www.kmbc.com › article › casa-volunteer-child-...
Jackson County Court Appointed Special Advocates describe a staffing shortage as "an unprecedented crisis," and they say it's affecting how ...
Mar 16, 2022

Missouri Children's Division caseworkers 'DROWNING' amid ...
https://www.examiner.net › News
Apr 6, 2022 — The new director of the Department of Social Services' Children's ... child welfare department that is facing severe staffing shortages and ...
"

yes , Fnord the current State of Affairs is sad , but we are seeing the effects of the current State of Affairs almost played out daily ..Especially ie. Texas . But the side effects of not addressing and re-allocating funds appropriately . Falls at the feet of management ....Local , and State , possibly Federal
Governments. IMHO these are the people at fault . Have seen Local City Councils here redirect huge amounts of money paid by Casino taxes, to the Counsels General fund ( Slush fund ) . That were voted on by the local people for public education . Turned into funding both small and large Real Estate projects . With no accountability . Except if they are overdue on completion .
Most likely authored by their friends and financial supporters .For large hotel projects in a already
densely populated area of downtown . Even smaller projects that they might reap immediate financial
benefits from for their own personal gain . This kind of activity by public officials going un noticed
is obscene . Have even seen ex city counsel member attempting to organise protests . With no results . When had appeared before counsel at one of their meetings . To ask for explanation of these even one of these inequities, Was removed before . i got to my second paragraph of my inquirey by
their , stand by Police Major . But several people making random complaints were allowed to speak.
The Fox is in the henhouse . IMHO and the results are being played out all over the country.
In the most terrible forms at the costs of human life . Just my iwn opinion based on observations

With the links posted by kitesandtrainsandcats, do you now understand why?

One of the main problems lies with attracting people to the field of Social Work in Child Welfare.

Most people just do not want the job.

@ Fnord : yes i see why but once again this is a management issue by the people in power .
Increases in staff and bigger salaries might attract more individuals to the field .
Instead of we need to save a buck to maintain budget .. This would benefit from being a priority
Gov. expense . Based on the concept of just saving lives . Within our own borders .
Thank you kitesandtrains for posting those . should be manditory reading for all local and state officials .

Pushing an agenda by nefarious means is not criminal, it is politics.

Murdering random kids who did not bully him is criminal.

is amuurica fixable at this point?

Welcome.

The other problem is the taxpayers who because they don't need social services have no desire to fund social services.

Much the same with taxes for school funding, "My kids are grown and gone, I shouldn't have to pay for school for other people's kids."

Then again, there is only so much money one can drain from taxpayers.

No.