Dear Editor:
It never seems to fail.
Confronted with concerns about the effectiveness of a hotline that fails to address the needs of abused and neglected children, officials with the state’s Department of Child Services (DCS) respond by throwing around some big numbers.
More than 14,000 calls received in August. An average of 544 per weekday and nearly 200 on Saturdays or Sundays.
Fans of bureaucracy must be thrilled. Look at those numbers! Boy, just think of all the reports that are filed as a result. What a bunch of paperwork, huh?
This, of course, is part of the problem with the DCS and the administration that spawned it.
Set aside the large numbers of calls, and the underlying events that provoked them. We all should be shocked that abuse and neglect of our youngest and most innocent Hoosiers continues at such a high volume.
What is more important is what is being done with these calls. That is where the failure has occurred, and that is what has led to the ongoing investigation of DCS by a legislative study committee.
When the changes to the child welfare system were made in Indiana, the administration chose a direction that satisfied the needs of bureaucrats, but failed Hoosier children.
In response to continuing challenges of dealing with poor and inadequate computer systems, instead of just instituting better technology, the administration broke the system into pieces.
The administration wanted standardized forms for employees answering the abuse and neglect calls coming in. Instead of educating locals, the state hired people to staff a new call center in downtown Indianapolis.
Why do so many of us think this is the wrong direction?
Call centers can be very stressful work environments. An employer told me that it takes a special person to work in that kind of environment: isolated, sitting with head phones on eight hours every work day listening to complaints. Add to that the immediacy of making decisions that abuse and neglect call workers must make with every call and you have an even higher potential of stress on the job and eventual high turnover.
The philosophy of one call center for child abuse and neglect calls just doesn’t work.
A second criticism is that call center workers, despite their training, have little to no experience in the field. If a neighbor calls in a report suspecting that a child is being beaten, that call will not be immediately sent to local officials for assessment. More than likely, the call will be stored away. The local office eventually may review the call and find that it needs to be assessed, but the immediacy of the incident is lost.
Indianapolis workers don’t have relationships in this area. I have heard from professionals that their calls aren’t honored. One public defender in another county said that, of the 10 calls she has made on children she is personally aware of, only 1 call was investigated.
Call center workers should be the most experienced, best trained employees.
What should happen?
Instead of continually trying to justify a failed system, the administration should fess up, pick up the pieces of the puzzle and change direction.
I think a hybrid system of call centers closer to home would answer both criticisms of call centers. Rotate workers in and out. If there aren’t enough employees, eliminate the jobs in Indianapolis and bring them home.
Or bring in an independent contractor to evaluate how to answer the administration’s need for better record keeping and maintain a system that is cost effective and meets the needs of those Hoosiers who use it.
And stop thinking that big numbers automatically mean success. They don’t.
Sincerely,
Gail Riecken
State Representative
Indiana House District 77
Did Ms. Riecken call this in from her hideout in Illinois?
My wife works the AT&T call center here in Evansville. People call her irate and fustrated all the time. Yes it is a stressful job answering those calls and taking notes. I do not feel sorry for the workers however. I am of the opinion that if you don’t like your job…leave it!
But, the other points that Riecken makes are astounding. Why would you setup a call center only to file the call away with no follow through?!?
Wow, sounds like they got their complaint driven process outline from the DMD in Evansville under the JW administration.
Could this be more of the “They’re part of the 47% that I don’t have to worry about”?
These are our children we are collecting data about; is someone up there in Indy writing a book?
Maybe we could contract out parenting of these kids to some nice Asian company and save even more money.
There is a 47% that we don’t have to worry about. The parents that work, pay tax, have a structured lifestyle and appropriately discipline themselves and their children are doing fine. The idea of outsourcing parenting to Asians is pretty ingenious. This would save more money than most realize, it would also add to our current high unemployment rates. The 47% that take up a lot of our time and resources is also the 47% that is the feeder system for the criminal justice system. With asians doing competent parenting, jails, prisons and law enforcement would shrink. Incompetent parents raise incompetent children who have children and raise them in an incompetent fashion. This has been going on for over 40 years and no amount of money is going to improve or change it. All the problem we face in this country are small stuff when compared a growing number of incompetent families we have, families are the very basic form of government.
With the exception of the childish boycott during the beginning of her current term Rep. Riecken has been an effective representative, particularly in the social services realm.
The only true reforms will occur when IBM/ACS fires all of the retreads that were hired from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.
During the early part? Riecken, together with the majority of the democrats, have been absent from their desks at the State House for the better part of the last two legislative sessions.
Gail wins re-election by 15% in a big Republican year!
Why? Because she did her job well!
Comments are closed.