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abuse
February 2009 
Change within Child Protective Services
Jackie
Plato is credited with saying "Necessity is the mother of invention," the definition of invention being the creation of a new device or process. Currently, there is a need for the creation of new processes within the Child Protective Services of this country. As a child who watched her family crumble from physical and emotional abuse, drugs and alcohol and neglect from the system, I wish to dedicate my career in psychology towards creating new programs and policies, with the intention to provide support for children and families in need.
Many families have had experiences with Child Protective Services. Through personal experience, I have realized by the time someone intervenes in a negative family situation it is typically too late, and someone has already experienced some form of abuse. My goal is to implement preventative measures by working closely with families deemed to be high risk, starting at the mothers first prenatal appointment. It is my belief that with proper psychological screening and the appropriate support, the abuse of children can be drastically reduced. Many doctors stress prevention as the key for a laundry list of diseases. As our understanding of the way the human mind functions progress, so will our ability to pin point and prevent abusive behavior.
The first step toward archiving my goals is a bachelors degree in psychology, which will help equip me with the knowledge needed for researching, testing and implementing fresh ideas. Although these dreams of creating a better world for our children are still in their own stages of infancy, they are what drives me forward, and while radical, show promise.
This is an essay I also posted in the pod - Change for Our Children. I would invite any one interested to stop by and check it out. I also will use this essay for the scholarship competition here on Gaia. If you want to leave me some feed back on ways to improve that would also be great (come on you English teachers - I know you're out there!).
Access: Public
I have always worked with children in a volunteer capacity. After finishing my masters, I really want to continue working with children. I am always frustrated with the system, and yes, sometimes the parents. Mothers in our state have the choice of giving up their children as infants, to certain places such as hospitals. Mothers still kill their kids, put them in the garbage. Judges still choose to make the wrong choice; I personally know of a family where the father threatened to kill his family; after anger management, he was deemed ok to see his kids. A year or so down the line, the mother began dating; she decided to marry him. It was usual for her son (her daughter was my on-site little sister) to go to his dad's on the weekend. One Saturday, he shot and killed his son and himself. Have you ever been to a child's funeral; it is not right. There is not enough care taken, enough money to pump in the system, and not enough time to do it all. As a future addiction counselor, it was disheartening to hear a story of a counsellor in Tampa. His speciality was family and children; he was just arrested for attacking his own step-son. I will look at the essay; I have won a few!!! (If you do not mind).
Have you all heard about Nebraska? They passes a law similar to Florida's. They forgot to put the AGE of abandoment. Over 35 teenagers were abandoned. I was outraged. I then found out it was because they could get help for the kids with behavior problems by giving them up. How sad. Anyway, the state caught on, and are changing the law to read only infants.
I printed your essay-am looking at it. Please note you say archived; think you meant achieved. Do enter the scholarship-I did. You never know untill you do it. I have won about 5.
Go, girl.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my essay! It is greatly apprecaited. I'm not sure how good it is, I havn't had to write one in years, and I'm afraid I may be a bit rusty. Thanks for catching the typo, gosh, I wonder if I submitted it like that! Oh no!
I DID hear about all the teenagers being abandoned, and yes many said it was because they felt they would be better off for various reasons. In many of the cases the families were simply unaware of the support systems that were available for them! I agree, it is very sad.
I was watching the news one day about the mothers that kept tossing their babies into trash cans. One state came up with a bumper sticker of stick figures, one showing the mom putting the baby in the trash with a line through it (like a no smoking sign) and the other stick figure leaving the baby at the hospital. I think all states should make it so babies can be dropped off, no questions asked, and launch a campaign so everyone knows. Many of these young moms have no idea what their options are, either.
I couldn't imagine a funeral for a child, although mentally I am preparing myself for the posibility I will attend one in this line of work. I can't even watch tv shows or movies where children die. I lose it, and that is just from a work of fiction…
Your essay was informative and different. Good submission, I would think.
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