Devereux President’s Blog

The employees of Devereux will never cease to amaze me. My executive assistant, Bobbi Lewis, has been with this organization for more than 40 years in a wide range of positions. Maggie McGill started in direct care more than 30 years ago and is now our Chief Financial Officer. Supervisors, teachers, housekeepers, and clinicians have given their entire careers to helping Devereux work with our society’s most challenged individuals.

Last year Devereux had its first United Way employee campaign in southeastern Pennsylvania. More than 400 employees from the corporate offices and our three southeastern Pennsylvania Centers pledged over $73,000 to support United Way’s wonderful work in our communities. Devereux was honored by the United Way as the outstanding new campaign in the region.

As we entered our second campaign in October of this year, I was worried about whether we could exceed our first year’s effort. Once again, our employees amazed me. Our 2007 campaign raised almost $95,000, an increase of more than 25%. Alba Martinez, the dynamic President of the Southeastern Pennsylvania United Way, said to us at the end of the campaign, “If everyone delivered like Devereux, our problems would be solved.”

Last week several significant changes were made in the leadership of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and a related State oversight agency. This occurred in response to a series of tragic deaths of Philadelphia children in the child welfare system. The changes must have been very difficult: the professionals that were asked to resign, or were fired or reassigned, are all good people who have devoted lengthy careers to children’s services. Despite good people trying hard, the results – at risk children not being protected – are not acceptable.

This is not only a Philadelphia problem. Florida, New Jersey, and many other states have also had children “lost” in the system and suffering, resulting in firings, law suits, and reorganizations. Responses in these other states have often included increased staffing and increased resources (laptops, vehicles, information systems) which are both helpful, but do not address the most fundamental problem. Decisions about when to remove a child from his or her family and how to move that child as quickly as possible to the best permanent placement are extremely difficult. It is very challenging for any bureaucracy – public or private – to support good case management in these situations.

Effective case management in child welfare must be very aggressive and proactive: not aggressive in removing a child from a family, but aggressive in following up on warning signs. Methamphetamine addiction is a child welfare crisis. Any hint of it must be followed up, not trusting that everything seems alright. Bureaucracies have a tendency to be reactive rather than aggressive and proactive. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” In fact, sometimes current laws do not allow agencies to intervene before actual abuse or neglect has occurred. Unfortunately, being reactive is often too late in child welfare.

Devereux has been a leading provider in several states that are wrestling with these issues. The best resolution we have seen so far is in Florida. The form of the change there was a significant privatization of most of the child welfare services in each district in the state. However, I do not think privatization itself was the reason for significantly improved results. Through privatization, some of the contractors developed much stronger case management models and increased their focus on prevention. These stronger case management models and emphasis on specific, proven prevention models can be implemented within an agency, as well as through privatization.

Of course, I believe that Devereux has developed by far the best case management and prevention models in our Florida operations. Fortunately, that opinion is supported by data and a series of accolades for our programs.

I hope we have an opportunity to share our experience with the City of Philadelphia. We must do better for all our children.