Child And Family Saving Programs Deserve Allocated Funds

Is this the time to reduce support to troubled families in our community?

My colleagues and I on the pediatric team at the Deaconess Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect have the sometimes unenviable job of treating serious child abuse injuries - the scalding burns, torn genitals, broken bones of vulnerable children subjected to the rage of an out-of-control adult. In 1995, there were no fewer than six child deaths by abuse in this county.

So how do the budget writers in the Washington state House of Representatives react to this unprecedented crisis in violence directed toward children? Not at all well - yet.

To their credit, legislators saw fit in 1988 to design an experiment in local decision making called the “Special Children’s Projects: Continuum of Care.” Instead of making the decisions in Olympia, they asked local citzens’ advisory committees to analyze our local needs and develop programs that would strengthen the protection for abused and neglected children. The idea was to increase community ownership and responsibility by forming public-private partnerships to fill the gaps in services to families.

In Spokane, the community advisory committee made the following decisions:

To initiate the Deaconess Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, a collaboration of law enforcement, Child Protective Services, pediatricians, prosecutor, attorney general and health and social treatment providers to evaluate high-risk child abuse cases and formulate treatment plans by expert multidisciplinary teams.

To give families with serious needs the support they need to stay out of the child protection system by providing family resource specialists in Spokane and Central Valley school districts.

To reach out to families in their own homes to help them solve their own problems before they deepen and become a public responsibility with adept counselors from the Martin Luther King Center and the Spokane Prevention of Child Abuse Center (SCAN).

To provide safe shelter, mentoring and skill development for young moms at Volunteers of America’s Alexandria’s House.

To continue Volunteers of America’s Crosswalk multiservice center for street youth - the last thread of our safety net for children disconnected from their families and living homeless on the streets.

Over the past eight to 11 years, these programs have proved cost-effective; two independent outcome evaluations of the programs in Spokane, south King, Snohomish and Lewis counties found that they reduced the risk of abuse and have restored many families to good health.

Looking for ways to empower local communities, the Legislature in 1993 passed the Violence Prevention Act, establishing 23-member advisory committees chosen locally by cities, counties, chambers of commerce and school boards. These community networks were promised “new” money to initiate new prevention programs.

Our Spokane County Community Network, in concert with the Communities That Care Prevention Board, is in the process of conducting a careful assessment based on research. The result will be a comprehensive plan detailing our Spokane priorities and strategies to build a stronger community and prevent violence.

But the Legislature now has a double-cross for Spokane.

Because we in Spokane were so farsighted in 1988 to pilot this idea of local decision-making, the House now is telling our successful programs to “turn to their networks” for continued funding. What that means for our community is that $674,000 of state funding is lost as of June 30 for these tried and true local programs.

What are we to make of this? Can we, as medical professionals, continue to care for helpless children in the face of such indifference on the part of those who broke their promise to these same children? Of course we will continue our work. That goes without saying. But shouldn’t our Spokane legislators, who know these programs best, stand up for them in Olympia?

Money allocated a year ago by the Legislature for these Spokane Special Children’s Projects runs out on June 30. No one knows what will happen then. But those of us who see and treat abused and neglected children every day have a pretty good idea. And it’s very frightening.

The Legislature is still in session. Maybe there’s time for people to call their legislators and express their views. We hope so.

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