Amy’s Life in Brief

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.