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Emergency room's pleas to DSS ignored |
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Monday, 23 March 2009 03:25 |
An emergency room doctor's repeated pleas to social workers to take child abuse seriously may not have been enough to save two children.
The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that Dr. Dennis Mullaney, a former
emergency room doctor in Fulton, New York, is speaking out about the
Oswego County Department of Social Services.
"The county's Department of Social Services routinely ignored reports
of suspected child abuse called in by doctors and nurses in the
emergency room at Lee Memorial, Mullaney said in an interview last
week. The medical staff talked frequently among themselves about DSS's
complacency, he said."
Dr. Mullaney's comments appear to have been prompted by the recent
murder of two children, but his attempts to be heard go back years. He
organized a meeting between medical professionals and Oswego DSS in
2007 because "he feared some children might die," says the paper.
"I was at the end of my rope."
Oswego County Department of Social Services describes the mission of
its Child Protective Services program this way on their website:
"Child protective services includes the receipt of reports of suspected
abuse and maltreatment of children in Oswego County from the NYS State
Central Register. A caseworker is assigned to each situation to assess
the risk factors and safety of the children involved and to determine
if the family needs assistance in order to keep their children safe."
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