Amy’s Life in Brief


And it just keeps coming….
July 4, 2008, 4:21 am
Filed under: MSW, police, social work | Tags: , ,

I just got a call from the child abuse specialist (an MD) wanting some more information on the case.  I gave it to her.  She is also very frustrated with the agency the reports for this kind of thing go to.  Apparently they determined they didn’t need to investigate and then turned it over to the police at 5:15 the evening before a big holiday.  What is up with that??  I reassured her that the only concern was the type of injury involved, everything else was appropriate and of no concert. I provided her with the name of the admitting MD and hopefully more information will be gathered to let the police know to call of the dogs.

I mentioned to her that this whole situation was giving me second thoughts about having reported this case to that particular agency at all.  I said I had told the family that all of these types of injuries are reported because while there are some “legitimate” injuries, it allows for the actual cases of abuse to more likely be caught.  This in theory of course.  This agency’s inconsistent response causes people to think twice before reporting what they should.  So, how many cases of actual abuse do not get reported because they’re assumed to be “good people” and professionals don’t want to traumatize them unnecessarily? I don’t know but there are probably more cases that end up like that than the agency in question would like to admit.

So, now I have to figure out if I can get paid for the 90 minutes or so that I have had to spend working on the case tonight.  I also won’t be actually working again until Friday the 11th, so I need to figure out how to get this documented so if some one else in the office has to deal with it, they can figure out what is going on.

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Just got a call from work….
July 4, 2008, 2:41 am
Filed under: MSW, instincts, job, mandatory reporting, peer pressure | Tags: , ,

I’m a little bit frustrated with myself and with the system after this call.  There was a difficult case this week and now, in hindsight, I think maybe I just fell under the spell of peer pressure from some coworkers.  The coworker who I fell under the spell of was not another social worker but a couple of nurses.  They felt the case needed to be reported to the authorities and I was just a bit unsure.  I deferred to their experience and made the report.  I made myself as clear as I could that we were reporting simply because of the type of injury, not because we had concerns about the home environment or family situation.  I was told by the agency I was reporting to that it sounded like nothing other than a reportable injury and probably wouldn’t be investigated.  This was yesterday, late in the morning.

Tonight, about an hour after I got home from work, the evening house supervisor (YIKES! I said to myself) called me.  Apparently the POLICE!! were at the hospital wanting to talk to the social worker and see pictures of this injury.  I was dumbfounded!  First of all, numerous supervisory type people have met with the agency in question and have asked them to notify us if there is going to be further investigation so that we can have the appropriate people available to them.  They’ve also asked that it be done, except in extreme emergency situations, during normal business hours.  For example, social workers are only on staff at our hospital between 8:30 and 5:00.  Anyway….I talked to the police officer over the phone and let her know that I had no concerns and neither did the treating MD…it was just reportable simply because of the type of injury. 

I also asked her why they got the referral from the agency after business hours.  She stated they got the referrals whenever the agency decided to send them over and then they would investigate them at that point.

So, now I’m sitting here worrying that the poor family has had to be interrogated by the police when I had told them, based on the info I received from the agency, that most likely nothing was going to happen.  And I’m wondering how to document my conversation with the house supervisor and the police.  All very annoying!

And I’m second-guessing myself about whether I should have made the report at all.  I didn’t have any concerns, so why make the report simply because it was a reportable injury?  I don’t know…very frustrating!

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