Social Services or Socialist Servitude?

A Child Protective Services (CPS) case in Monterey finally came to a sane conclusion. A mother got in an argument with her daughter almost a year ago, when the mom slapped the teenaged girl. CPS came and took not only the daughter but the two younger boys away from the mother. The daughter was eventually returned to the mother but in an all too familiar logic defying tactic, the younger boys were not. The mother was made to jump through all manner of hoops for many months, made more difficult because the Social Worker's supervisor was good friends with the lady who was given the two young boys. She complained all the way up the chain of command, given promises and such but no joy. Mom contacted me a few months ago in total despair. Bringing her back to life and willing to fight the battle, she persisted until she finally got her two younger boys home last week, so the whole family will be together for the holidays.

I have another CPS case in the Alameda County, where the mother was told by her Public Defender and Social Worker that she needed to take psych medications or she wouldn't get her daughter back. Even though it wasn't court ordered, it would 'look' bad if she didn't do it. She nonetheless fought back, refusing to take the drugs, and this is starting to turn around in her favor but she has a long way to go. There is a lot more to this case, but the county is using her psych eval against her to prevent her from reuniting with her children even though I have yet to find a Welfare & Institution code that permits that. From what I know the psych assessments are only to be used to determine what services the parent should have to help on reuniting the family. However, Social Workers, District Attorneys read these 'assessments' which automatically label the mother in a negative light resulting in an injustice. Suffice to say she has found two other psychologists who have given her different evaluations.