Monday, October 19, 2020
Because of budget cuts due to decreased revenues as a result of the pandemic, the DCF Child Health Unit will cut 67 nurses assigned to monitor the care of foster children, including access to medical and/or psychiatric care and immunizations, administering psychotropic medications, and working with DCF staff and other community services for the children so they are able to make a good transition when foster care ends.
New Jersey has seen a decline in foster placements because of the DCF emphasis on keeping children in the home whenever feasible. Under a court order, the state is to have at least one CHP nurse per 50 children; the ratio at the present time is 1 to 34. There have been fewer calls from schools regarding potential child abuse. Considering the number of kids who are home on remote learning it makes sense.
The DCF report for last year says the CHUs have become a cornerstone in the DCF efforts to reform foster care. Calls to the child abuse hotline have plummeted since the Covid lockdown in March most likely because children do not have access to persons such as teachers and school nurses. Let’s hope this is not an unwise cut.
Prayer for the Day
Breath of God, flowing free, come to us as we worship you,
And break the seal we create around our souls.
Cleansing us from the burdens of the past
And opening us to a new future.
Loving God, open our hearts, gracing us with your power
So we may live faithfully as did the One we follow.
In the name of him who called us to follow him,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist
Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are.
Isabel Allende, Chilean-American writer
Hear my prayer, O Lord;
give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness;
answer me in your righteousness.
Do not enter into judgment with your servant,
for no one living is righteous before you.
Psalm 143:1–2