Oregon DHS

The Department of Human Services,

I have an ongoing civil rights complaint with Oregon DHS (Dept. of Human Services) After nearly a dozen letters I remain frustrated. here is the letter.
To: Oreogn DHS

Is it just me, or is just that everything you have told me about what to do or what is supposed to happen continues to change.

I feel like I am in some kind of Darwinian experiment where not only is everything constantly changing but evolving into more work for me.

I feel that I have been very patient with this whole process even to the point of volunteering my time to review supposed progress and provide support to an ongoing situation. All this despite the fact that it is your agency that violated my civil rights and continues to make it a long, winding and difficult path to obtain services to which I am eligible and entitled to receive.

It should be apparent, at this point, that anyone who reviews all that has transpired will see rampant inconsistent behavior, gross continued incompetence, and a most disastrous inability to deliver services in a timely and professional manner.

I do not understand the reason why I am consistently treated so poorly by your agency and its employees. The caviler, unprofessional and self-serving behavior that is directed towards me is unwarranted, and only causes further delay in the processing of my benefits and the delivery of services and benefits that I am, by law, entitled to.

This kind of experience continues to aggravate my health conditions, makes my healing process that much more complicated, difficult and prolonged. Not to mention costing the state and federal governments more money.

Every six months it is the same sad story of mistakes, confusion and excuses. This combined with meaningless apologies, an unwillingness to change and seemingly vast and bold management level practice of covering up of any wrongdoing on the part of managers of your department.

I have every right to be upset, angry and frustrated by the experience presented to me by employees and management of the Oregon Department of Human Services and its Self Sufficiency Centers.

It seems clear to me now that in the State of Oregon, that the poor, disadvantaged and disabled are really just an after thought. We continue to be treated with indifference and callous behavior from those who are supposed to be helping us. The continued “need” of the politicians to balance state and federal budgets by removing benefits from those who have no other means only proves that in our “modern” society people in my situation are viewed as a burden. After all, what possible contribution to society can a person with a disability make.

It would appear that standing up for my civil rights has only made my situation more difficult and continues to make the delivery of benefits a frustrating and protracted affair.

Maybe that is the intent of the State of Oregon Department of Human Services. Seems like a good plan. If we make it difficult to find, apply and obtain benefits then the state spends less money. Those who complain about it will have even more difficulties.

Frankly, this sheep is sorry to have rocked the boat. I suppose I should just get back in line a take a number and wait my turn.

Oh, wait! That’s right I forgot. My wheelchair won’t fit through the door and there is no place for me to wait in line. If its all right with the State of Oregon I’ll just crawl down the stairs and lie here on the floor until my number is called. Sorry to have been a bother and an interruption. You can go back to kicking me now.

CPS – A System Out of Control

This blog is dedicated to every parent who has lost children to Child Protective Services. I hope to enlighten those who have the luxury of not knowing how corrupt they are and to empower those who are engaged in a war against them. CPS is not about protecting children, it is about money.

http://cpsasystemoutofcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/11/washington-county-oregon-child-welfare.html

DHS with their lawyers, the state-contracted lawyer for each child and each parent(s), each DHS staff person at every level, each child psychologist (often more than one is on a case), each child therapist (more than one can be involved), and the judge overseeing the case—they are all in the corruption together. Kids continually get shuffled through the door with mounds of bureaucratic red tape, endless meetings that DHS arranges, and the kids and their families suffer.

Why?

It’s all about money and power when DHS pulls strings and they put kids in what often becomes dangerous situations (you name it–foster parents not thoroughly checked out, poor communications between DHS and their “handlers” and the parent(s), DHS staffers not on the same page as they “develop a case plan”, not giving parent(s) a chance to get their child(ren) back if they’ve successfully gone through parenting and/or substance abuse class, kids sent of the country when there’s family here, or left with an immature or government-dependent foster parent, and the list goes on and on.

Time goes by quickly as the kids languish in this inept system, all the “handlers” of the child above get their paychecks from the state, and the Oregon taxpayers are given an enormous bill as a result of the corruption over at DHS’s Children’s Services. DHS deliberately stretches out the court cases because of their adamant claim that they are “working the best interest of the child”. What THEY perceive to be in the best interest of our children and grandchildren. Do you know that a lot of caseworkers have never raised a child themselves?!

When the director, Richard Wexler, came from the National Center for Child Care Reform in Virginia to Oregon in 2005, he gave excellent input on how Oregon’s DHS could start cleaning house and start revamping the organization—eliminating waste, quickly moving on cases, reuniting children with their families, putting an emphasis on kinship care, etc. Well, DHS basically sent him home and did nothing—why? “The funds weren’t there to do the job”.

Baloney, DHS has millions of dollars to screw up children, disconnect them completely from their relatives, and they have blood on their hands for the many Oregonian foster children who have died while in the system or shortly after as in the case of little Adrianna.
The whole system needs to be dismantled. How many innocent children are going to die because of DHS’s mishandling of cases and making kids even more vulnerable because of their “government knows best” thinking. DHS is simply a mirror of government gone bad as we’re seeing in Washington DC. It’s all about money and power. I hope and pray that BO’s stimulus money isn’t thrown towards Oregon’s DHS.

Just ask a former DHS worker why they quit their job. They will talk since they have witnessed so much corruption, and finally had enough. Rich Rigney, if he’s still a DHS caseworker, had his story in this newspaper last November. Check out fightcps.com—stories of real families from all over the nation who DHS tore apart. DHS needs to be brought down. The solution? Families, kinship care, churches, principled adoption agencies, orphanages in a family setting—anything but DHS . Remember, the “Government is not your Daddy”—government corrupts and the children suffer.