The FAMCare Blog

We are taught as children that we can trust our parents, our teachers, our religious leaders, the police, the mayor, and the President of the United States. It is their duty to care for us, to mean us well, and to do only good. We can trust them; until we can’t.

We would like to kick off Social Work Month by thanking the more than 700,000 social workers nationwide for the amazing work they accomplish. These "Unsung Heroes" are truly woven into the fabric of our society.  This year's theme for Social Work Month is "Social Workers are Essential" to highlight the invaluable contributions social workers make in our society, especially as this nation addresses the coronavirus pandemic. 

Everyone knows how the pandemic walloped the elderly in 2020. Nursing homes became the epicenter of COVID-19 deaths. No, Mr. Sinatra, it was not “a very good year” for the elderly.

Failure to provide timely, effective medical attention for the millions of combat veterans who have served our nation is the scandal that has haunted  the Veterans Administration for the past ten years; veterans dying in corridors and parking lots as they languished on waiting lists; overwhelmed VA hospitals sinking into dereliction as vets begged for help.

How could this happen? Did Congress's fail to provide a robust VA system? Was it the fault of the dedicated medical professionals who work tirelessly in VA hospitals? Were they just "burning out"?

Preventing violence is possible.

Learn how you can help.

CDC’s VetoViolence website has interactive tools,
trainings, and resources to help you and your community
stop violence now and prevent it in the future.

Evidence shows that different types of violence often
share the same root causes. Understanding the
causes and things that can protect people and
communities can help start or strengthen your violence
prevention efforts.

VetoViolence offers free, accredited online
trainings for you and your team as well as tools
and resources.

Learn how to address violence in your
community; implement prevention programs,
policies, and practices; and tailor approaches
for different types of violence.

vetoviolence.cdc.gov

Since 1977 when Annie opened on Broadway, theatrical artists have been portraying endangered youth who have experienced both maltreatment and engaged in delinquent behavior like Oliver Twist and Little Orphan Annie.

Oliver! and Annie, two of Broadway’s most iconic musicals, star two children caught between Juvenile Justice and Child Protective Services. 

A recent article in Social Work Today highlights a true triumph of empathy. In Innovations: New Foster Care Initiative Spotlights Parent Advocates, Debra McCall describes the parents’ pain when social workers have to remove children from their families.

“It is never easy. We enter parents’ lives at the worst possible moment—when the children they love have been removed from their homes. At that point, parents are experiencing shame, anger, and confusion. They are frightened and frustrated by the “intrusion” of the child welfare system into their lives. And they fear losing their children permanently, perhaps because that’s what happened to a neighbor or a friend.” (Social Work Today, Vol. 21 No. 1 P.3)

When prisoners in the United States are released, they face an environment that is challenging and actively deters them from becoming productive members of society. Within three years of release, 67.8 percent of ex-offenders are rearrested and, within five years, 76.6 percent are rearrested.

Criminals are Criminals

Recidivism rates (or rates of repeat offending) are often used as a measure of effectiveness of prison systems and post-release offender management programs.  What’s more, studies show that the general public believes - “once a criminal, always a criminal”. They see “ex-cons” as “criminals waiting to happen again.”

Case workers in Juvenile Justice have long been concerned about a subversive movement in the back halls of Congress and many state houses to erase any distinction between young offenders and adult criminals. As recently as the 1990s almost all 50 states overhauled their juvenile justice laws, allowing more youths to be tried as adults and scrapping long-time protections to help rehabilitate delinquent kids and prevent future crimes. Only ignorance of the history of juvenile justice in United States could be responsible for a now subdued but continued movement to “simplify” criminal justice by merging juveniles and adults together in the eyes of the law. May we take a moment to remind everyone how our juvenile justice system evolved to its present effective state.

In this video we walk you through how to navigate across the different screens and tools within the FAMCare case management platform. This tutorial showcases the ease and functionality of navigating our system.  Our goal is simple, we help you to optimize your day-to-day activities. This makes your agency more efficient so you provide superior outcomes for those you serve.