Link: Kelly Case Once Again Tests DHS [Philadelphia Bulletin]
Last summer, DHS Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose shed a tear when asked if she had seen the grim photos of Ms. Kelly on her death bed. The teen was only 45 pounds when she was found, infested with maggots and rotting in a damp North Philadelphia back room.
Since then, a child welfare review panel has been charged with keeping a keen eye on DHS, after the department’s personnel scandal resulted in the firings of eight DHS social workers.
The city’s Inspector General now also has a special team of investigators specifically devoted to monitoring DHS.
At-large City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown asked the commissioner if a series of recommendations from the review panel had yet been implemented.
“Can you identify visible changes as a result of the Danieal Kelly case?” asked the councilwoman.
Mrs. Ambrose admitted there were departmental deficiencies on her staff. DHS consumes the largest piece of the general fund pie.
“We need to be putting people in the right services so everybody knows what their role is and emphasize accountability,” she told the committee.
“Sometimes the roles are duplicative and it results in chaos and [lack of] accountability. That’s exactly what happened in the death of Danieal Kelly.”
“The report clearly indicated there was a breakdown in the system,” said Ms. Brown.
Ms. Ambrose said the failure was in DHS’ monitoring of its providers, the private companies contracted to do the hands-on casework with children and families.
“We must be really clear with providers as to what our expectations are,” she said.
Let me get this right. Ms Ambrose said DHS failed in monitoring the contractors that DHS hired to do the hands-on work with children and families. So, DHS just does paperwork and they can't monitor at the same time. That is sad.— jazzylady- It is sad, and this administration has paid little head to the recommendations for reform that were thoughtfully crafted by the experts. In the first six months, it was so distracted it did not once look at or consider the report, and in the last six months, having hired someone with no child welfare experience, and little management experience, we haven't seen much progress. It's so sad.— Brenda Truth
- DHS was, and still is an unorganized pathetic city misfit, overought with patronage and good ol' boy network mentality. I detest seeing a certain 18 year old, I know, running the streets, giving her body to every guy she encounters, get pumped full of drugs and alcohol, all because they dragged their feet in investigating her at 16-17, because of her daddy and stepmom having connections to the city, then finally only offering 6 months of coerced help, because being near the age of 18, you are somehow supposed to be in complete control of your life, and city employees hate investigating othe city employees, thus this near adult child, did not get the proper attention, in time, or long enough, to keep her from becoming a true adult mess now. The next time some 18-21 year old is found face down in the gutter, it is prob because DHS was not there, when the person was 15-17, in dire need of help, after red tape and doing favors internally, stopped the process.— GalRand
- I will repeat my previous comments on the Kelly travesty...provider monitoring has nothing to do with this. The mechanism for obtaining contracts has everything to do with this including a commissioner that knew of the problems with the private agency and ignored, or was told to ignore by higher ups, the problems more than once. DHS MUST be run farily and communciation and accountability must be improved. DHS workers cannot ignore phone calls and emails from providers or their clients. Have you ever tried to get theattention of a DHS worker with a return phone call? Does not happen!— MSW
- No kidding MSW, I saved the old VOICE MAIL, from DHS, saying a MEETING would be scheduled, regarding the bloodshed I and others were trying to prevent. THAT MEETING NEVER OCCURRED, even after I called back steadily for next 4 months. When the system allows messed up teens to become messed up adults, these adult children, can do nothing, but drain us all, as they cannot hold down jobs, cannot provide a roof over thier own head, thus they are looking for Government and City help for thier misbegoten life, and we have to fund it, instead of getting them help, and carry on in some way, as they turn 18, and still have mental issues, that need resolved, and turn them into productive adults. This mentality, you are 18, you are on your own now, is pathetic, for some, who had issues in late teen life, thanks to crappy parenting.— GalRand
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
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