This Issue is An Elephant

My early morning thoughts after reading about youth spending nights in Franklin County Children Services offices...

Sometimes complex issues like this one can be like the story about the Seven Blind Mice and the Elephant. In that story, one mouse touches the elephant’s foot, goes back to his fellow mice and tells them it’s a pillar. The next day, another mouse goes out, touches the elephant’s trunk and reports back to tell them that, no, it’s a snake. The following day, another mouse touches one of the tusks and says it’s a spear. And so on. 

Until finally one brave mouse has the courage and the fortitude to explore the entire elephant. She doesn’t just see the issue from one angle. She runs up one side and down the other. She studies it from top to bottom, and from end to end. And then reports back that the Something is: “As sturdy as a pillar, as supple as a snake, as wide as a cliff, as sharp as a spear…” and all the other descriptions. Because that Something is an Elephant. 

This is the story that comes repeatedly to my mind when it comes to this issue, the underlying factors, and thinking outside the box when it comes to solutions to effectively address it. 

Because 'Elephant in the Room' is that: 

• This is not a new crisis, because it’s shedding light on a pervasive one. This issue has existed in Franklin County for years, and youth for whom they couldn’t find immediate placements for were often sent to Pomegranate. 

• Reducing the number of group homes has lessened the number of safe options for youth who need placement. While group homes have fallen far out of favor, they are preferable to spending nights in county offices or being sent unnecessarily to residential facilities. 

• It’s always been challenging to find good foster parents for teens and tweens, and post-COVID, foster care recruitment is more difficult than ever before. 

• There is too much focus on trying to label the youth themselves as troubled, and describing their “behavior" rather than the fact that it’s the situation itself that is traumatizing. A teenage girl spends a series of nights in a county office. She is terrified and uncertain of what will happen next. A supervisor says the girl has “taken over this room.” The police are called when the girl begins to mention self-harm or lashing out at others. The situation itself calls for a trauma informed response and a compassionate one. 

• County child welfare agencies are undergoing a staffing crisis. The article quotes an FCCS supervisor saying: “We have no staff. We have no one. I can’t say that enough.” Likewise Hamilton County has a 40% vacancy rate for child welfare caseworkers. During COVID, Cuyahoga County pulled workers off the child abuse hotline to supervise children in the building. 

• Ohio was the last state in the nation to make police and sheriffs mandated reporters, and it sounds like there is definitely a need for follow up training. The mention in the article of two “use of force reports” from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, including one involving an 11 year old, was troubling. But it was encouraging to reach about Officer Brooke Cano from Whitehall Police who has a passion for helping children who are staying at the FCCS offices. She has led by example by taking additional classes to learn how to de-escalate. When transporting youth, Officer Cano often plays their favorite music. It’s not surprising that body cam footage recorded teens becoming calmer after their conversations with Cano.