Review finds need for coordinated services to better protect keiki

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Services for families must be better coordinated if Hawai'i's children are to survive rising levels of abuse and neglect, much of it related to drug and alcohol abuse, a state commission said yesterday.

Overlaps in services, a lack of emphasis on prevention and treatment and a failure to match services to community needs all must be addressed, according to Blueprint for Change, a commission established by the Legislature in 1994 to review the state's handling of child abuse and neglect issues.

Those findings were presented yesterday at the State Capitol, four days before the expected arrival of a federal team that will analyze state performance in caring for endangered children.

Substance abuse — including the use of alcohol, crystal methamphetamine and other drugs — played a role in 75 percent to 85 percent of the cases that ended up under the purview of Child Welfare Services, said Lydia Hardie, Blueprint's executive director.

According to anecdotal evidence collected from social workers, nearly 80 percent of those families are linked to the abuse of crystal methamphetamine, said Lillian Koller, director of the Department of Human Services.

Koller, who supervises Child Welfare Services, said the federal review team will spend a week analyzing Hawai'i's system of dealing with child abuse and other factors that threaten children.

Hawai'i, she said, like the 13 states the federal team has reviewed to date, is likely to fail. The team also will make recommendations on how to improve the situation.

Koller said there are 13,000 children under state care.

"The state doesn't make a very good parent," she said. "We need parents to be good parents, and we need to do that through education and other means of prevention."

Kathie Reinhardt, who analyzed the amount state, private and county agencies spent on services to ensure the safety of children, said that the annual expenditure on child-safety issues is $200 million, 10 percent of the state budget.

Of the $200 million, only 10 percent is spent on prevention and treatment, Hardie said.

When providers were interviewed, said JoAnn Farnsworth, chairwoman of Blueprint's policy advisory committee, it wasn't so much the amount of money that was questioned, but its allocation.

"There are 10 state departments and all their various offices," she said. "There are private agencies and there are county programs. Each has its separate funding streams, organizational culture and purpose. But child safety is the issue that crosses all of them.

"There is also a disconnect between state agencies and input from the community that must be overcome," she said.

Koller said many of the agencies committed to helping those children or to making their environments safer actively compete with one another for money. The time has arrived for them to work together on a problem that should be the primary focus for all of them, she said..

She said she was disturbed by the way Child Welfare Services was perceived by the community as an arm of law enforcement — another type of punishment for activity in the drug trade.

Koller said she hopes to find a way to move that perception — and the agency's role — to the front end of the problem: education and prevention.

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, who was also a part of the briefing yesterday, said he planned to make solving the problems a high priority.

He will begin addressing some of the issues during a drug summit in September that will look at community involvement, prevention, judicial issues and treatment.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.