JeffAndJanice.com

Thursday, December 16, 2004

I’ll give you an idea what my job is like. As you may know, I work for Child Protection in Louisiana.

It’s Thursday, and I’ve spent my entire week working with one family that’s in crisis. But I won’t talk about them. Let me tell you about my day so far.

I’ve spent the entire morning doing paperwork on the case record for that family. I’ve already done a lot of paperwork on this case this week, but today’s work was especially stupid. Earlier this week, I wrote the social summary, which is a narrative describing the family dynamics and problems that need to be addressed. This is a good document for recording just about everything you need to know on a new case. Yesterday I copied information from that document, and pasted it into a referral form for court. I also copied it onto a referral form for a therapist. In both instances, I also attached a copy (required) of the social summary. This means that I am supplying the same information, but in two different formats, to these outside people. Now remember, the form we use to refer a family to the court is a different form than the one for the therapist, though they contain similar, and often duplicate information.

Today I had to complete other necessary forms to be filed in the case record. These forms aren’t sent to anybody. They’re just filed in the case record with the social summary. First I completed the Risk Assessment form, then the Safety Assessment form. You’d think those could both be addressed in one form. I completed these forms with information from the social summary, and filed them in the record... with the social summary. So that’s three documents with the same information, filed along with copies of the other forms I mentioned, which all have the same information.

Now for the Face Sheet. This is a one-page document that lists family members, addresses, phone numbers, etc. If you opened the case right now, you’d think that you were looking at the face sheet. But no. That’s the referral form that the investigator sent me. It’s filed right where the face sheet will go, and contains all the same information. But I have to copy all of the same information from that referral form, and file it in the same spot in the record. That’s two forms – one on top of the other – with identical content, arranged slightly differently on the page.

I’ve documented the same information, much of it handwritten, at least five times so far this week, on various documents. Meanwhile, the family is in crisis.

Believe it or not, Louisiana has one of the best child protective service agencies in the country. We’re one of the few (very few) to be accredited. God! I’d hate to see what it’s like in other states.

another hasty insight by Jeff on 12/16/2004

Thursday, December 16, 2004

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