Letters: Foster care done right in L.A. County

Re “How to protect the children,” Editorial, April 13

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection created by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors recommended a single entity to “help” the Department of Children and Family Services coordinate work.

This is not the answer, as DCFS social workers are already coordinating client services. It’s one part of the job they do every day, and it needs to be taught to newly hired social workers.

Newly hired social workers must be well qualified and able to learn how to coordinate client services. They also need to learn how to deal with the challenges of not knowing what’s behind the doors they are knocking on. New social workers need continuous hands-on training by their experienced peers.

L.A. County Sheriff John Scott recently said about training new deputies, “It’s to take individuals who maybe have very little life experience, and to place them in situations where they have to act under pressure, because that’s what our job’s all about.”

This applies to new DCFS social workers too.

Amelia Medrano

Encino

The writer is a supervising children’s social worker in the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services.

Having recently been a foster parent for six months, I discovered far more problems with the system than I ever knew existed, and we had a good situation compared with many I heard about.

Until Los Angeles County puts the children’s welfare first — which it doesn’t, no matter what officials say — problems will continue.

We informed the county numerous times about safety concerns with our baby’s family (we had been lifelong friends until we helped them by fostering their baby), but only one such notification was followed up on. Despite contacting social workers, supervisors, lawyers and the judge, the child was returned to her family.

I fear she and her sister may become statistics. No one listened to us as foster parents.

Cathy Narvaez

Whittier

The Times’ excellent editorial points out the problems with child welfare services in L.A. County as well as the overall problem confronting all aspects of county government: five elected supervisors each trying to act like a chief executive.

Nothing will change until the “cow county” structure of governance is completely revised. This will not happen until a real blue ribbon commission is established to recommend basic changes to the county’s outdated charter, which was written in the early 20th century.

Robert Banning

Pasadena

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