Richard Gelles: Child Welfare Report

Richard Gelles expresses his concern with the failings of the child welfare system and proposes four key solutions to the issues at hand. First he proposes an elimination of the mandated reporting required for professionals that work with children. He suggests that they should not be required to report abuse because the mandatory reporting of child abuse has flooded the system deeming it ineffective. I can agree that the surge of reports can cause a clog in the system if many are false or insignificant. I also think that Gelles has the right idea in advising the definition of child abuse be modified to be less general in hopes that the system can focus on more severe maltreatment cases. The third recommendation made is to separate investigative services from case management. These responsibilities should not be laid upon on individual …show more content…
I concur that this is a heavy responsibility for one person to handle and that the two duties should be separated in order to ensure the jobs are done fully. Lastly, he emphasizes the importance of training employees who plan to work in the system. This is a key factor that I not only agree with but also would hope that over the years has improved as of 2015.
3: The state of Arizona’s child welfare department mainly focuses on family preservation and tackling maltreatment at the heart of the issue by offering services to parents. On the website for Arizona’s Department of Child Safety, it is provided that Arizona has developed and utilizes a program called Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. (Families in Recovery Succeeding Together) or AFF. This program focuses mostly on helping families deal with substance abuse problems in an effort to keep families together. Healthy Families Arizona is also a program that targets parents, although it is focused more on expectant mothers. Those who receive this service can expect home-visits and referrals. For families who have been reported for child abuse, in-home services are