How Does One Get Child Protective Services to Do Something?!

[Kisa]

Names will be changes as well as dates and the like.

A friend of the family (who I will call Pat) has many health problems including diabetes, Hep C, kidney and liver distress, morbid obesity, and cured cancer. Pat once had two daughters. Pat has never beed a fit parent; verbally and emotionally abusive (yelling at them, swearing at them, calling them names), an extreme hoarder and slob, and neglectful. The older daughter moved out at age 18, got pregnant at age 19, became a lesbien, did many drugs, and died of a drug overdose on the streets with her son nearby.

The younger daughter, 15 at the time, took care of her nephew because Pat taked many medications and spends much time in a drugged out stupor. The younger daughter became the new target for Pat's "abuse" and, after many suicide attempts, finally succeeded. After the death of the eldest, many of Pat's friends and family began calling Child Protecting Services on a weekly basis to try to get the younger daughter into a better situation. Each time, someone would go over to check things out and say nothing was wrong or say Pat has to clean up. Pat would chean up a bit and CPS would stop coming by.

After the death of the second daughter, everyone called more to try to save the older daughter's son. He is now 9 and has what I believe to be Psychopathic Personality Disorder. He steals Pat's lighters to burn holes in his bed and belongings, swipes razors and knives to cut holes on his walls and bed, urinates on the walls, convinces his friends and younger cousins to do bad things, showed his private parts to girls in school, shows no emotion or remorse, once convinced another young boy to let him touch his privates, threatened his cousin with a knife, wrote a suicide note on the kitchen wall, hurts his dog when no one is looking, and threatened to kill himself.

We all know he needs counceling and therapy, but Pat refuses to do so. Many friends and family members call CPS to try to get him in a better situation where he can get the attention and help he needs, but it's getting disappointing. Things keep getting worse and CPS refuses to do anything about it. Any ideas?

[Pixilated]

Never dealt with CPS but that is a horror story well into the making. Where are the school authorities in all this? Surely they can see how out of kilter he is?

How about the parents of the children he's victimizing? If they call police -- much as you hate to call police on a nine-year-old -- perhaps that would get things moving?

I'm sorry. I don't really know what to suggest. I hope something works, though, because whatever's wrong with this boy right now is no small thing, and he obviously needs help badly.

[Jester]

All that you just wrote, please, call CPS and detail it. Or, re-word a bit, and send them an email. But if you believe that something should be done, by all means, be the person who steps up and does it. Because clearly no one else is.

Bear in mind, though, that is the CPS staff in your area is lazy, incompetent, or overworked and don't really see the issue here, there is little you can do to MAKE them do anything. You can, however, go over their heads to their superiors, whomever that may be.

[Andara Bledin]

Don't forget the power of the press, either...

I know it would suck to "air the laundry" as it were, but that kid needs help, badly.

^-.-^

[Taurus52]

Put in writing and send a letter, with a copy to your local newspaper. That might drop a firecracker in someone's panties.

[Bright_Star]

The sad thing is that by the time someone finally does something then it's going to be too late. You see that all the time on the news. Then people start asking after a tragedy "Well, why didn't anybody do something?" Finger pointing all around & the people who could have stepped in & made a difference act like their hands are tied.

[Jester]

But you can't have the attitude that it's too late! Yes, it well may be, but if you throw up your hands and say, well, there's nothing to do, since it's already too late, if you just give up like that, what makes it any better than anyone else who didn't do anything? We as a society must strive to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Sure, there will be times we are too late, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Dos this make sense?

[Pixilated]

Very much so!

Bright_Star is right that often it is too late, but the thing is, you never know when that line has been crossed, particularly when children are involved. As disturbed as this child appears to be, I think there's still time to pull him back from the brink, but he needs to get out of that environment and into treatment NOW. If CPS is too lazy/incompetent to do anything, then people need to start calling the police on some of his activities.

[csquared]

The problem is usually proof. Without it, CPS can not do much of anything. What you have heard second hand or claim to have seen, is not enough. Corroborating, adult witnesses are needed (they tend to discredit childrens' testimony).

[Aria]

I don't think there is anything you can do about this, as long as the abuse is short of physical and there's adequate food and shelter. I don't think emotional abuse usually moves CPS to act...

[crazyofficeclerk]

There may be a way to get him help yet. You say that he is hurting his dog? Call whoever in your area takes animal abuse complaints. If he is hurting an animal, they might conduct an investigation about the animal abuse. If it can be proven that he is injuring an animal, that might be enough to force a complete CPS investigation.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

There may be a way to get him help yet. You say that he is hurting his dog? Call whoever in your area takes animal abuse complaints. If he is hurting an animal, they might conduct an investigation about the animal abuse. If it can be proven that he is injuring an animal, that might be enough to force a complete CPS investigation.

Will that work though? Since he's a minor it would fall on Pat's head about the well being of the dog right?

Like ppl have done for work, document everything and pictures.

[kansasgal]

Depending on the state, emotional abuse is considered child abuse. Call the police to inform them of the abuse. CPS has 24-72 hours at that point to get involved. Detail exactly what you have seen, do not embellish and do not state what others have seen. If you can, go to the CPS office in your area and make an in-person complaint. It is harder to ignore someone there in front of you.

[Der Cute]

Will that work though? Since he's a minor it would fall on Pat's head about the well being of the dog right?

Like ppl have done for work, document everything and pictures.

Pictures, please.
I'd go around each room, actually video it and comment as you go. Date and time it please. If there's a way to get a pic of psych kid without him suspecting anything, go for that. are there food in the cupboards? Trash on the floor? Fridge? Bathroom?
Not just cluttery, look for filth and unhealthy living, pee and poo on floor, danger to fire exits and unstable stuff in the house (fall down squish).
If you can, get a pic of Pat and her behavior. Yelling once or twice isn't that bad, honestly. But habits and causing self harm IS. Someone has to prove the self harm.
Do you live near that house? Do you ever HEAR the yelling and fighting? Call that in to the police? The police can make the decision to pull a child from a home.
You might also be able to walk into a station and show them the evidence. Make sure there's dates on that stuff.
Ya know, if psych kid has stuff next to his bed like smokes and lighters, that's really not that bad. But if he's got needles and anything harder, that's grounds for removal. Get a pic of his room and the burned parts. Ask him, hey dude, wtf? "oh I burned it cuz I liked to burn stuff. Did you see the dog that I hurt?" ...YEAH. that's the stuff you need.
Anecdotal stories don't fly. You need hard data, documents, pictures, videos, admissions to behavior.

Do keep in mind that psych kid might take his anger/stuff out on you if he finds out what happened. Not a big worry, but keep that in your thoughts.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

If you can, have an audio recorder on you and hidden if you think he'll openly talk about it. Actually is there on your phone that's good? Test it out if you do.