Hope for Neglected Children

Theodora Triggs and her daughter, Tamika, are getting help--the mother in a private residential drug treatment center and her daughter, just turned 4, in a foster home that offers the food, clothing and healing therapy she needs. Three months after they were featured in The Times’ “Orphans of Addiction” series, there is hope and the possibility that one day mother and daughter will be safely reunited. But they had to wait too long for help, and too many more are still waiting.

Tamika is one of thousands of children growing up in Los Angeles County with neglectful parents who abuse drugs or alcohol. Numerous good Samaritans, including a doctor, a public health nurse and a homeless-shelter worker, had repeatedly called the county’s child protection agency, starting when the girl was just 1 year old. Their attempts over the years to get help were to no avail, according to Times urban affairs writer Sonia Nazario. The child continued to live precariously with her mother until the day her picture appeared in this newspaper, at which time county social workers finally found her.

Some things have been fixed at the beleaguered L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. No longer are calls to the child abuse hotline put on hold for as much as an hour, says Peter Digre, director of the agency. Other problems are harder to cure. Some of the overburdened social workers complain that their large caseloads and other job demands discourage thorough and repeated face-to-face investigations of child abuse calls. But nothing less will ensure child safety.

Digre wants an increase in the department’s $1-billion budget and 600 more workers. Before the county Board of Supervisors approves that request, supervisors want to know how the department is using existing resources and have ordered the first comprehensive audit in the department’s 14-year history. The analysis is focusing on the heavy workload of social workers, their high attrition rate, the increase in the number of children in foster care and problems with the county adoption hotline, which is used to recruit prospective parents.

Some steps can be implemented as soon as Feb. 10, when the supervisors are scheduled to take up the recommendations of a previously appointed task force on alcohol- and drug-affected parents. This interagency group has been working for two months on ways to improve the identification of children in such families and how to help. The report recommends that teachers, police officers, social workers, doctors, nurses, relatives and neighbors be asked to do more, to be on the lookout for abusive parents and to report them. The Department of Children and Family Services would need to prepare for an influx of calls--which are already up 20% since The Times spotlighted this crisis. The county should follow the recommendations of its task force, then speed the audit and fix the rest of the child safety system. Make sure that, first, the children get help. Then, in families that have a chance at repair, assist the parents.

Tamika Triggs and her mother made us see how bad things can get, and how much better they can be. The next steps are up to the county.