What to do when a six year old climbs out the window of your kindergarten classroom threatening to jump three stories to the concrete below? What do you say to a seven year old girl …with scarred arms that is obviously cutting herself repeatedly with a knife or razor? Kendrea (6) and Gabriel (7) successfully hung themselves a few years ago. They came from different states but suffered the same afflictions.
What to do when a six year old climbs out the window of your kindergarten classroom threatening to jump three stories to the concrete below? What do you say to a seven year old girl … with scarred arms that is obviously cutting herself? Kendrea (6) and Gabriel (7) successfully hung themselves a few years ago. They came from different states but suffered the same afflictions . Only one out a hundred very young children are successful in their suicide attempts as it is not easy to do.
he U.S. is the only nation in the world to not sign the United Nation's International Rights of the Child Treaty adopted in 1989 leaving children as chattel with no civil rights in the home they are raised in, voice in courts, media or legislature. As a long time volunteer County CASA guardian ad Litem it has been hard to comprehend the explosive growth of child abuse in my lifetime. Trends, statistics & options.
State ward children fed Prozac like drugs with minimal or no ACEs trained foster families or service providers that understand the self loathing and lack of coping skills so many foster children live with. If elected officials knew the long term costs of tortured children leading dysfunctional lives impacting our schools, public health and public safety, more children could be healed of their trauma & acquire the coping skills required to live a happy life
37% of children overall and 54% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17) 6 - 12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children take psychotropic medicines Invite KARA’s INVISIBLE CHILDREN CAMPUS program to a college near you or contact KARA for our Ambassador speaking program to your community.
Thank you Chris Serres for reporting on the troubling development at St Joseph’s Hospital in Brainerd. (11.2.17) This may be our community’s (nation’s) most serious health problem. St Joe’s failure to admit mental health crisis patients reflects the growing nightmare of how medical institutions are dealing with mental health at a management level. Refusing help to our most troubled citizens (people in crisis) means more sad & awful things happen to the rest of us. People in crisis are a...
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa Learn about the CASA guardian ad-Litem program and how you can make life better for abused and neglected children where you live. Today, there are 500 abused and neglected children in Ramsey & Hennepin County child protective services without a guardian ad-Litem. Being a State Ward child is painful. Being a voice for that child is...
Abused and neglected State Ward children have already suffered enough when they enter *foster care. To be removed from a birth home by a judge means that the child’s life has been in imminent danger of serious harm. Most of the children I’ve worked with as a volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem have stories that still make me shudder twenty years later.
I attended Syl Jone's play BECAUSE at the Mixed Blood Theatre last week. It's a moving piece that explores living with mental health issues from multiple perspectives leaving the audience with a personal sense of what it's like to be this person, live with this person and understand this person . Syl is now the Resident Fellow for Narrative Health at HCMC (I think every hospital should have such a position - how else can these stories be told?) I asked Syl at the play if he...
265 Moms, dads, brothers, sisters and selves were shot by very young children this year. This is the first time data on people shot by children has been collected in America. There are 28 states that hold gun owners criminally liable if children access their guns. There is at least one state that fines doctors (Florida- the initial bill called for a five million dollar fine and & 5 years in prison for the doctor ) for counselling parents to take preventative measures with their...
A New York Times article has identifie d that over 100,000 prescriptions for antipsychotic medicines were written in 2014 – to children 2 and younger (many still in cribs). A shortage of child psychiatrists is partially blamed. These powerful mind altering chemicals are just one generation removed from Thorazine. To use them like candy for babies and 3 year old children is dangerous. This Mercury News video series on foster care children provides a stunning insight...
What's it like to be; The admitting person in the psychiatric war d of a metro hospital turning away violently troubled childre n because there is no space? HCMC in Minneapolis averages about 900 emergency psych visits a month, many...
Today’s in-depth article by the Huffington Post on the billions of dollars in fines and judgments paid out by big drug companies on civil and criminal complaints for promoting drugs (not even established as safe and effective for adults)...
Prairie Care’s new 50 bed hospital for Children’s mental health is a tiny step in providing badly needed services for the traumatized children passing through Minnesota institutions. HCMC alone sees 800 to 1000 emergency...
Over the past few years the states o f Washington ($144 million) and Indiana have been sued successfully for many millions of dollars for failing to protect abused and neglected children. In Arizona,...
A few years ago, Vice Presidential candidate and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels eliminated funding across the board for Indiana families adopting special needs children (after 500 adoptions by families promised these dollars for...
You have certainly chosen one of the most challenging jobs on the planet. Saving children from toxic homes & helping them heal and develop the coping skills necessary to live a functioning life. How do you manage to deal with so many families (and children) at one time? We all live with the troubled institution that is Child Protection and the lack of awareness, concern and resources our community makes available to abused and neglected children. ...
Will Minnesota Sheriff’s sue Counties over failure (Star Tribune Today) to provide services to mentally unhealthy inmates? Is the Hennepin County Commissioner “failing in her public duty and violating a judge’s...
Thank you Brandon Stahl for drawing attention to the sadness I witnessed again and again as a volunteer CASA guardian ad-Litem; children re-abused and children re-entering the child protection system at double the national rates. Some...
Dana Liebelson’s recent interview demonstrates what the state of Michigan went through to stop her reporting on the v iolent treatment of youth in the state’s juvenile prisons is just one more example of a punishment...
I was moved today when Dee Wilson (from Knowledge Management) delivered the Casey Foundations 8 month report and recommendations for Hennepin County child protection at the County Commissioners briefing at the courthouse (listen to it...
Early Childhood Education Manifesto (this article appeared here in 2009 - it was submitted by KARA board member David Strand) Education is the engine of progress and prosperity. No nation can achieve its potential for greatness...
Young families in the U.S. don't have any mandated maternity leave when the new baby arrives (w e are the only *developed nation in the world to not offer paid leave to new parents) . Families and babies really do...
These past weeks have been awful for vulnerable children in MN. Stomped on, kicked, torn liver kidney & pancreas 2 year old Sophia O'Neill was violently murdered by 17 year old Cary Faran-Baum died because she wouldn't stop crying . There's been way too many violent child deaths in MN this past year - many of these children were known to child protection services. Sophia was known to child protection (they didn't investigate the case because caseloads are high and...
Volunteer: Be the voice for a child that doesn’t have one! Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area CASA National volunteer opportunities Job description Nearly 9000 children are reported abused or neglected...
ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN Most of our news for this page (300 + articles) is gathered from; Child Welfare in the News is distributed at no charge by Child Welfare Information Gateway ( www.childwelfare.gov...
This recent Star Tribune article by James Eli Shiffer hits on a touchstone to light the fire needed to fix child well-being, racial disparity, schools, juvenile justice and public safety in our community. "Trying to get information out of...
Yesterday's New York Times article on huge increase in Black Children killing themselves should make some impact on anyone with a heart. From 1993 to 2012, JAMA Pediatrics published a study that found that suicide...
Change for children in child protection services will not occur until more of us know the depth and scope of child abuse in our communities. To make this happen, KARA reports on child abuse around the nation. Share our reporting with...
Best of all, long time American news anchor and investigative journalist and winner of Emmy and Peabody awards Don Shelby is advising us on the project. The protection of all children, is to his mind, the responsibility of all adults - ...
Two of my friends have killed themselves recently and I want badly to know how to help others deal with suicidal thoughts and depression with more than psychotropic medications. When I wrote INVISIBLE CHILDREN in 2005 , a...
- and not in a good way. Quoting Jodi Wentland (Olmsted County's child and family services director) in Brandon Stahl's Star Tribune front page article today, turnover is too high, inexperienced social workers are taking cases...
This is the third toddler shooting that I've written about recently. A three year old Albuquerque NM boy shot and wounded both his parents with his pregnant mothers loaded hand gun last Saturday. His two year old...
Children born into dysfunctional families without access to crisis nurseries, quality daycare, or other early childhood programs rarely do well in school, learn how to read at grade level, or graduate. Limited vocabulary skills, high incidence...
Upon receipt of an email from a MN state legislator directing my attention to the cost of Governor Dayton’s trying to improve conditions for Minnesota's at-risk youth, I penned this response and would ask you to write something like it and send...
"National Disgrace" is the headline in the Wednesday Star Tribune report on the federal government's failure to enforce child protection laws, and the many children dying of abuse and neglect in plain view of child protection...
Thank you Brandon Stahl (& David Chanen) at the Star Tribune for writing this article giving voice to the elephant in the room that is dangerous and suicidal behavior of very young children in child protection. No one wants to hear it and no one wants to address this, but it is a very real problem of great consequence to children and our communities. As painful as this conversation is, without it, dangerous and suicidal behaviors will continue to be...
The only good news in the tortured death of four-year-old Eric Dean is that Minnesota Governor Dayton's "colossal failure" comment about child protection in the state led to the creation of a task force recommending big changes to how our state...
