Thursday, February 12, 2009

Record Number of Complaints

The state's family and children's ombudsman says its office has responded to a record number of complaints about the state Department of Social and Health Services.

In a 102-page report, Mary Meinig, director of the Office of Family and Children's Ombudsman, said there were a "higher percentage of agency violations in 2008 than in any previous year."

The ombudsman office, created in 1996, is the agency that investigates concerns about DSHS.

The office received more than 1,200 complaints in 2007 and 2008. About one-third of the investigations over the two years resulted in an "adverse finding" in which the agency violated a law, policy or procedure or acted unreasonably. In some cases, no violations were found, but "harm to the child or family had occurred as a result of poor practice."

Full Article and Source:
Record number of complaints about state's handling of kids

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am glad to see articles that bring this to light. An increasing amount of complaints is writing on the wall.

What I hope is that there is sufficient reaction to do something now -- before another child dies a horrible death.