ODJFS Staffing Changes ~ from PCSAO Heartbeat

ODJFS LEADERSHIP CHANGES – on August 10, Jennifer Justice was named Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Families and Children. Jennifer has nearly 15 years of child welfare experience at the local and state level, and she also has worked in the private sector. She has been with ODJFS since 2006 (in SACWIS and most recently as Bureau Chief over Child and Adult Protection.) She has a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology and a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling. PCSAO has a great working relationship with Jennifer and we are excited about this appointment. Welcome Jennifer!

Sandra Holt will be joining the Policy Staff Team in the Director’s Office (led by Shancie Jenkins), where she will continue to serve the agency with her expertise in child welfare and other human services policy, as an analyst and advisor. Gerri Cotter has also joined this team, and is working on transitional youth and youth workforce issues.

Columbus Housing and Transition Age Youth

Under the charge of Franklin County Commission President Marilyn Brown and Columbus City Councilmember Hearcel Craig, the Community Shelter Board has convened a group of providers serving homeless youth with a specific focus on those who are 18-24 years old.

The first meeting held in June focused on defining the intent of the workgroup, agreeing to participate – personally and organizationally – in the work moving forward and developing a framework/structure for doing the work.

The second meeting held in August was focused on sharing the collective data/information on the current system – reflecting on the needs/gaps that may exist, identifying actions that the group can take together to fill those gaps and developing a framework/structure for doing this work. Smaller workgroups were formed around subtopics and will meet between August and October.

The larger group will reconvene in November.


The group consists of representatives from the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board, Buckeye Ranch, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, COHHIO Youth Empowerment Program, Columbus City Schools, Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Franklin County Children’s Services, Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas – Juvenile Branch, Huckleberry House, City of Columbus – Mayor’s Office, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, OSU Star House, Salvation Army, United Way of Central Ohio, National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Community Shelter Board.

Please direct questions to:
Sara Loken
Chief of Staff
111 Liberty Street, Suite 150
Columbus, OH 43215
614-221-9195 x 106
www.csb.org
SCLoken@csb.org

More kids abused; economy to blame?

More kids abused; economy to blame?

Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 15, 2011.

The children arrive limp and still or in the midst of a seizure, or maybe — if they’re lucky — still able to cry out in pain.

For three years now, doctors and child-welfare workers tending a growing number of seriously or fatally abused children have wondered whether they also are witnessing the worst possible result of an economic crisis.

“There’s a lot of supposing,” said Lara LaRoche, director of intake at Franklin County Children Services. “The common theme that gets proposed by all of us is that there seems to be a link.”

The connection between recession and child maltreatment isn’t well studied, experts say. But the current economic decline has been accompanied by a spike in abuse that many find convincing, said Dr. Jonathan Thackeray, interim medical director at the Coalition on Family Violence at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

“The economy gets bad, and abuse gets worse,” he said. “And I think the numbers bear that out.”

Children Services is on track this year to log more than 12,000 reports that lead to a review or investigation. “This likely will be the highest in the history of the agency,” LaRoche said.

The number of reports that specifically allege physical abuse has increased sharply in the past few years, from about 3,900 in 2008 to about 5,700 last year, according to agency data.

Thackeray said doctors and social workers at Children’s have been closely watching cases of abusive head injury, which account for the majority of child-abuse fatalities.

The hospital treated 24 children for abusive head injuries in 2007, before the recession hit, then saw the total surge to 43 the next year. Such injuries, which include instances of so-called shaken-baby syndrome, dipped some in 2009 to 33, but then went back up to 44 last year.

The suffering behind the numbers is immense.

“These kids have bleeding in the back of their eyes, they’re seizing, not breathing — they’re devastated,” Thackeray said. “Many will not survive. All it takes is for a caregiver to snap, and their lives will never be the same.”

From the beginning of 2007 through the first six months of this year, 35 of the children had died from their abuse. Thackeray said the norm for the hospital used to be three or four child-abuse fatalities per year. There were 12 in 2008, eight in 2009 and eight last year.

“We’re seeing numbers like we haven’t seen in years,” he said.

Two patients had died through June of this year, and head injuries were down, too. But Thackeray said the number of hospital consultations for suspected abuse keeps soaring. Officials counted 140 during the first six months of this year, more than in all of 2007.

Later this year, researchers are expected to publish data collected from Nationwide Children’s and hospitals in Pennsylvania and Washington in a study on abusive head-injury rates during the recession. Although the link might be established, specific causes and triggers are more complicated, Thackeray and others say.

“Poverty itself is not a cause of abuse or neglect,” LaRoche said. “The correlation is the stresses that come with it.”

Unemployment, eviction, a lack of child care or food, even the tension caused by living in crowded conditions with extended family or friends can create the spark for abuse.

Susan Seifert, a longtime foster parent who also runs a day-care center in Grove City, has spent years trying to love away the hurt. But even children who heal physically can be forever changed, struggling with emotions, behavior and schoolwork.

Two who came to her a few years ago had been repeatedly and viciously punched.

“They had these wide, wide eyes,” Seifert said. “The way they looked at you — it was terror.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>

LaRoche said child-protection workers in Franklin County, where the child-poverty rate now tops

25 percent, face a rising caseload. Two caseworkers contacted for this story said in an email that they had recently assessed cases of serious injury that included shaken babies, skull fractures, broken bones, burns, serious facial bruising and death.

Thackeray said advocates nationwide despair at the scant resources for preventing such violence and reaching out to parents. That makes it more important for friends, neighbors, teachers and others not to look away.

“And I think it’s OK for pediatricians to have a very frank discussion with parents” to ask how they handle such common issues as excessive crying, sleep problems and discipline, he said.

LaRoche said people who are worried about a child shouldn’t try to evaluate the situation themselves.

“Call,” she said. “Families also need support to keep their children safe. And our communities are really struggling right now.”

To report child abuse or neglect in Franklin County, call the 24-hour hot line at 614-229-7000.

Star House ~ Drop In Shelter for Homeless Youth Need

Drop-In Center For Homeless Youth Loses Funding

Refuge For Homeless Teens In Jeopardy

Lee, Candice. NBC4, Aug. 15, 2011.


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Somewhere in Columbus there's quiet street on which an unsuspecting house sits.

Some of Central Ohio’s homeless youth go there to escape life on the streets.

Shelby Clark has been going there for a year now.

"My parents passed away. I couldn't afford to rent where I was staying. So I decided to come down here and kind of been here ever since," Clark said.

The OSU Star House began as a research project in 2006. But the grant money ran out in June 2011.

With just enough funding to stay open until December 2011, the push is on to garner community support.

Jeana Patterson serves as the program coordinator. She says the home is an oasis for homeless youth between the ages of 14 and 24.

"The only thing we require of them is to sign in. They can use the computer in 30-minute intervals. We also have computers upstairs if they were doing something productive such as a resume, a school application or FAFSA form," Patterson explained.

Teens and young adults who go to Star House are guaranteed hot meals, a place to shower and a place to wash clothes.

The staff, made up of OSU students majoring in social work, help them sign up for social services, get medical treatment and even find a job or place to live.

More importantly, the youth who come to Star House establish relationships with other teens and build social skills.

The house is also a safe haven from those who try to exploit young people living on the streets.

Those who come to Star House come for different reasons.

"There's foster care displacement, choosing to be homeless because home is not stable, and sometimes they've tried their hand at independence and they failed -- like a lot of us do," Patterson said.

It takes $150,000 a year to keep Star House up and running.

Donations of food, clothing, and toiletries help with costs.

Its services will be missed if the program were to shut down.

"The staff is really cool. They're really nice and friendly. They make you feel like you're at home. They make you feel like there's somebody that actually cares," said 18-year-old Tyler Harmon.

For more information, go to OSUStarHouse.com/home.html, call Jeana Patterson at 614-432-5406 or email her at jpatterson@ehe.osu.edu