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FAIRMONT -- April brings thoughts of spring, and new life. But there is also a reason to pause and reflect on what life looks like for some of the more unfortunate among us.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Awareness month, and Brenda Lubenow and Debbie Mosloski with Human Services of Faribault and Martin County share some of the driving forces behind abuse and neglect, as well as what the process is like to try and help a child in those situations.
"When we first get a call, it has to be screened," Lubenow said. "We go through the reports within 24 hours and see if it meets any of the criteria that the Department of Human Services has laid out for us to see if there is any child maltreatment. If there isn't, the call is screened out and is just documented in our system.
"If a call is screened in, the case is assigned to an investigator, who then proceeds with whatever they need to do with an investigation or an assessment."
She noted that the manual used to determine if abuse is occurring is a large one, around 80 pages. Mosloski shared some of the criteria used to make those determinations.
"The main areas we look at are physical abuse, sexual abuse, and the neglect category is very broad, covering things like supervision, educational neglect, those kind of things," Mosloski said. "We also look at if it is abuse that has actually occurred or is it a situation where an injury has been threatened, and that's where drug use would fall in as well."
"If we get a report and there's an injury, that's something we look into very quickly, and sexual abuse we also react to very quickly," Lubenow said. "For reports of drug use, there's things we have to look for like finding the negative impact to the child."
Lubenow said meth use makes up the largest portion of cases that she deals with, stating that it is such an addictive and unpredictable drug that it warrants a fast reaction.
"We feel that you can't parent if you're using meth," she said. "It's also usually pretty easy to see what the negative impact is. They're not getting the child to school, there's not enough food in the house, or they're left unsupervised and the house is dirty."
"There's generally a co-occurring concern when drug use is happening," Mosloski said.
The situation is unpleasant enough for parents who are at risk of their child being removed from their home, and far more unsettling are the thoughts and emotional processes of the children themselves. Though it is meant for their benefit, children can have difficulty being removed from the only home they have known. Lubenow shared what the process looks like for the child, and notes there is a heavy emphasis on placing children with family members.
"We have to have our eyes on the child within 24 hours to five days depending on the severity of the situation," she said. "So the investigators will interview them, and sometimes they tell us a lot, sometime they don't. I'm sure it's scary and they're petrified to have a stranger ask them questions about home."
"We try to make it as friendly as we can, and be as sensitive as we can be to their needs, and yet look out for any safety concerns we might have. The hard part is if we decide to remove them based on the evidence we have, I'm sure that's traumatic for them."
Lubenow said there is a really high rate of placing children with family members, though there are cases when they have to be sent to county foster homes.
"Our staff is really good about trying to find a family member or good friend," she said.
Despite the negative side of dealing with child abuse, the women also shared that the main goal is to get the child back home.
"That's our job," Lubenow said. "We always look at getting the child back home. Sometimes parents are more willing to acknowledge that something has been going on and will jump right in to fix it, and then we have other parents who struggle with denial, and it takes longer."
Lubenow said the law states they have a year to reunify families, and most children are back in the home within six months. However, if children are not returned within that year, Human Services must then file for permanent removal.
"We do have cases where we terminate parental rights, but most of them return home," she said. "I think we've had a lot more terminations in the last few years than we've ever had, and the majority of that is due to repeated methamphetamine use."
As far as what people can do, Lubenow noted that just being aware of what's going on, and being available can be a big help.
"A caring adult can make a huge difference in kids' lives," she said.
The women noted there will be displays about child abuse prevention at the mall in Fairmont, as well as the Ag Center in Blue Earth for the month of April.