Cut the DSS caseworker some slack

Here in Massachusetts, DSS, the Department of Social Services, is the state organization that protects children from abuse. There was a high profile case in December where a 4-year-old girl died from an overdose given to her by her parents. Sad.

The caseworkers for DSS are like the lineman in a football game. They go about their day, toiling in the trenches and you don’t notice them until they make a mistake. And usually, like linemen, their mistakes are really big and visible. An opposing player gets through, maybe only one time during the game, sacks the quarterback, and does a victory dance over the fallen player. In the case of DSS, it usually means a child is dead and a politician is grandstanding for votes, or someone in the paper calling for someone’s head.

What you don’t ever see are the daily struggles the typically overworked caseworker has to manage. Carrying a caseload way over the recommended 18 cases. Having three or four major cases explode in a day, all that would have serious repercussions (like the death of a child) if not handled correctly and immediately. There's the normal work with clients, just keeping them going forward day by day. DSS, despite what people think, isn’t in the business of taking kids away from their parents. It’s in the business of protecting kids, and trying to get parents to the point where they can have their kids back.

The simple fact in our country is this: You need a license to own a dog, but anyone can have a kid. All it takes is one drunken night with a sailor some night, and a woman is pregnant and two people who never gave taking care of another human being a second thought now are going to carry one of the biggest responsibilities on their shoulders. The child isn’t born out of love, but instead of selfish lust. Many of these people can’t even take care of themselves, much less a kid. Many never felt the love of their own parents, so how are they expected to give the love they never felt. And at best the child is taken care of not out of love, but out of sense of obligation. They are clothed, fed, sent to school, all the bases are covered except the one that makes the child know at the end of the day that they are loved and wanted.