Outrage and blame are justified, but not enough to improve Maines’ child welfare system

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BDN’s Editorial Board operates independently of the newsroom and does not set policies or contribute reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

If you are concerned about a child being neglected or abused, call the Maines 24-hour helpline at 800-452-1999 or 711 to speak to a child protection specialist. Calls can be made anonymously. For more information, visit maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/cw/reporting_abuse.

A heartbreaking and horrific series of four child deaths rocked Maine and the communities where they took place.

A 6-week-old infant was reportedly shaken to death in Brewer on May 31, prosecutors said. A 3-year-old girl from the old town died on June 6. A Temple child died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on June 17. And Maddox Williams, 3, of Stockton Springs died last weekend.

These deaths rightly sparked outrage, and people naturally looked for someone to blame. The incitement to responsibility and consequences is natural and necessary. In three of the cases, with the exception of the death at Temple, a parent was charged with the deaths of their children.

The alleged acts and abuses should be judged and punished accordingly. There must be personal responsibility. There must also be bureaucratic responsibility and social responsibility.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about these cases, such as whether, or to what extent, state welfare officials were involved before the deaths occurred. But we do know some things. Court records show that police had told the Maine Department of Health and Human Services at least twice that Maddox Williams was being overlooked, for example.

We expect police investigations, Maine Children’s Ombudsman reviews, and DHHS’s own investigations with the help of Casey Family Programs to reveal more information. As the search for answers continues, however, it’s not about whether the system has failed more Maine children, it’s about how it failed them and what can be done about it. avoid future failures.

It is encouraging that the state is calling on Casey Family Programs, a national organization focused on child safety and reducing the need for foster care, to help investigate recent deaths and develop policy recommendations. . State officials should give this effort as independent and unvarnished space as possible, and then act on those recommendations once they materialize.

Just as blame alone won’t solve Maine’s lingering child welfare issues, neither will the state government defensive.

It is our responsibility as a state and as a society to do all we can to help children grow up safely and ensure they receive the love and attention they need, said Todd Landry, director of the DHHS Office of Child and Family Services, in a statement. recent press release. With the expert help of Casey Family Programs, let’s learn all we can about these recent deaths and continue our work to protect Maine’s children and support their families.

Unfortunately, it is not very difficult to say that we have been here as a state before. The tragic cases of Marissa Kennedy and Kendall Chick have ushered in a wave of scrutiny of Maines’ child welfare system in recent years. As a recent BDN headline indicated, that review resumed after the four deaths last month.

This review cannot be cyclical. Neither does the resources or the resolve to make things better for the children of Maine.

It is not enough to spread outrage and punishment after these tragedies occur, or to be lulled into thinking that they are inevitable because they keep happening. As a society, we must commit to providing more resources not only to strengthen child protection work, but also to help Maine families before they sink into these nightmarish scenarios.

There is a complex, but not impossible to resolve, link between poverty, mental health and substance use in many of these cases. Policymakers cannot ignore the interconnectedness of many of these issues.

Working to resolve these issues at the corporate level takes time and does not do immediate justice in individual cases. It is also much easier to write than to do. But it must be part of a sustained, multi-faceted effort to improve Maines’ child welfare system.

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