Let’s Back Firmness With Remedial Help

It’s a fact of life for any good parent: A firm limit, applied with compassion, can be a healthy motivator.

It appears as though the firm limits of Washington and Idaho welfare reforms have already been amazingly successful. Like a parent who has just discovered the magic of logical consequences, the administrator of Washington’s WorkFirst program was happy to announce this month that the program already has reduced the state’s welfare rolls by more than 9,000 recipients. The results in Idaho are even more astonishing: The state’s case load has dropped 70 percent. Only 2,324 people in the state were receiving cash assistance earlier this month.

Under these new programs, rules that discouraged the poor from working have disappeared. In fact, one Idaho woman was so steamed by that state’s new regulations, she cut her ties to the state’s welfare department and took a job as a grocery cashier.

One way or another, these new limits - a five-year lifetime cap on welfare benefits in Washington, a two-year limit in Idaho - appear to be acting like the limits imposed by any disciplined parent. They spur people into actions that can create greater accomplishment and self-esteem.

But, as any good parent knows, firm limits must be accompanied by a healthy support system. People of all ages need encouragement and practical help in order to grow.

Welfare clients need child care, emergency aid and employment training. Already, community agencies, churches and colleges have begun to respond.

But as we learn to adapt to this dramatic change, this community will also struggle with the welfare reform questions that remain:

Without an active reporting program, how can we be certain that former welfare recipients are anchored to jobs, not shelters for the homeless? What will happens when the economy worsens?

And how can we ever expect the most troubled on welfare to move permanently into the work force? Many of the least employable welfare recipients were damaged by childhood beatings, incest and rape. Many suffer the depression, anxiety and lifelong dysfunction of severe personality disorders. For them, a stable work life may loom as a sheer impossibility.

It’s optimistic to hope firm limits will help in these cases, too. But a wise parent also knows when she’s in over her head, when a child’s simply too disturbed for time-outs alone.

Intensive, time-consuming mental health treatment can improve the lives of people suffering personality disorders. At Spokane Mental Health, a program called ACCESS has been highly successful for people with severe forms of these disorders. But ACCESS requires a 10-hour per week commitment for at least a year. Will welfare reform allow people the time and cover the expense of actually pursuing such treatment?

Let’s hope the answer is yes. For the wisest of parents never give up.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jamie Tobias Neely For the editorial board