This is More Urgent since watching The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez! on netflix

Thank you for reinforcing the idea that children pay for adult problems and actions. We usually think of child development to adulthood as a journey of 'moral development'. However, it should not be startling to see the move from childhood to adulthood as a journey of moral decay! As a Gestalt is allow us see that to prevent harm to children we need to focus on adults and how they see children! That to me is the power of ACES -  the research documents how 'childhood matters' and the childhoods of those who came into contact with Gabriel Fernandez mattered (if only they knew it)! Anyone working in CPS type positions from the case worker to the top policy maker should be aware of the ACES IN THEIR LIVES and think about how they affect their views of children. Then we might have a chance of getting child centered policy and practice! Trauma informed is not just about understanding how trauma affects children, it is more importantly about how it affects the adults the children become!

Yes, I have been watching it also.  DEVASTATING.  I don't even have the words.  Everyone that interacted with him failed him.

I just finished watching this documentary.  It rocked me to the core.  I used to work for Child Protective Services and then worked for a non-profit as an in home parenting support coordinator.  This could have easily been me in that courtroom.  I was not properly trained, I was not prepared for all the parents who hid from me and wouldn't answer the door.  My very first case was a parent who, week after week, would not answer the door.  I didn't know at the time, I could do a welfare check on them by calling the sheriff.  I didn't know, and had little in the way of training on what to look for as far as abuse. 

I have since educated myself and become a Certified Trauma Practitioner and am much more qualified to do this work. 

This was just one layer of the problem with the system.  I, too have been told to watch my overtime.  The overwhelm and burn out rate in employees is astronomical, causing constant turnovers in case workers, families get lost in the cracks.  Now our funding has been cut and we no longer have in home visits AT ALL!  I shudder to think what is happening to some of the families I used to serve. 

The other thing that floored me was the amount of trauma that was inflicted on all the first responders, I hope these men and women find peace through trauma recovery.  

I think every social worker, law enforcement officer, first responder and teacher should watch this documentary.  Although, the worst part for me was to find out that nothing really changed and that this child's death made no difference in the system.

The most important part of the series to me was midway through E 4,, the guy talking about Maximus and the Corps like Lockheed Martin who "Profit" off "servicing the poor",, it's a simple FRONT that too many fall for,, they CREATE the problems and make debt $ off of them. It's what the US and other countries like Israel,, dare I say,, SA do all over the world. People need to Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, look him up. We live in a DEATH "economy",, Profiting,, Not Real Profiting, off Misery, death and destruction ALL for man made, DEBT $! It's the Social version of Environmental abuse. I literally can't Breathe! Knowing I lived in neglect and compromising my health by those who should protect it more than Anyone THEN, I get Criminalized when I spoke out,, for Decades! It's In people's FACES,, that everything is BACKWARDS,, going in the Opposite direction it should be and The Dummy people were Helping! Child abuse and Environmental abuse is the Same issue.