Assignment w7

February 15, 2020

Introduction:

It is analyzed that the issues that the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) face are more than any other state of the USA because of some of the reasons we will discuss. The rates of child abuse, opioid epidemics, and neglect reports are continuously increasing; therefore, the department needs more budget than previous years to resolve the problems. It is good that they need a budget to resolve the problem, but they are not focusing on the root cause of the problem until that root cause is identified and resolve it from that root they will not be able to overcome these problems and lower the budget. The three prominent problems that they face are listed below:

· Child abuse is a major cause.

· The opioid epidemic, and

· Neglect reports.

All these three issues revolve around parenting. These issues are also related to other departments, for example, for the opioid epidemic the department of health and human services is responsible, Indiana department of correction can also deal with neglect reports so that parenting practices can be improved. Furthermore, the child bureau and community resources can also be used. It means that the government is financing multiple departments for the same issue due to which budgetary constraints occur.

This problem can be solved from three different perspectives. My suggestions are listed below:

Realistic approach: The issue of child abuse can be controlled with the help of both governmental and NGOs who work for the same purpose, but their approaches are different. Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) deal with this issue along with the collaboration of NGOs so that in every country. Only one NGO or DCS worked in only one country. There is no need for multiple NGOs in one country. In this way, the burden of DCS will be shared. The Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) will be a hub where every NGO and employees of DCS have to report monthly regarding the progress report. In this way, the budget issues can be solved, and the number of employees of DCS will also reduce and an incentive will be given to NGOs who successfully reduce the rate of child abuse in their country.

The problem arises when everyone works separately, and multiple sources are used for the same purpose. But if everyone works in collaboration, then many problems will be solved. The focus of this approach is not only to reduce the rate of child abuse but also give awareness and parental programs to people so that this rate can be reduced and those factors can reduce that is the main cause of this problem. The reasons for child abuse are parents are not able to meet the needs and requirements of the child and sometimes the parents are also suffering from alcohol abuse and emotional distress due to which they are not able to manage the child properly.

Furthermore, the lack of attention from the side of parents and teachers often promoted this abuse. Due to child abuse, the child isolates themselves from the rest of the world. It leads to a lack of participation in school activities and sports as the parents are already aggressive. Therefore, they do not notice or pay any attention to what their child is going through.

Hence, at this point, the core training is mandatory for teachers, parents, and children as well so that they can better handle the situation. Instead of sending the child to the child care department, it is important to educate the parents. Therefore, the parenting activities must be considered important and such awareness programs must be designed that help them to overcome the problem instead of putting all their aggression on the child they have to contact to respect mentor or department so that they can better handle themselves. Furthermore, parents can understand their situation and they know what to do as compared to a child. The root cause of this problem is parents, disturbed families and sometimes educational institutes. The DCS, along with other community services NGO's can overcome this problem by solving the problems of parents. In this way, the burden on DCS will be reduced and their expenses will also be managed.

Cost and benefit analysis:

The opioid epidemic is not only the epidemic of Indiana, but it is an epidemic for the whole USA that disturbs each person. It cost Indiana $43 billion in the last 15 years. According to the report of the Institute of Medicine, the causes of the opioid epidemic is a greater patient expectation for pain relief, obesity, a musculoskeletal disorder of aging population, increasing frequency of complex surgery and its easy availability. Furthermore, poverty and substance abuse problem is the main cause that promotes it among the people (Nabarun Dasgupta, 2018 ). The below-mentioned statistics show how the alarming situation on the opioid epidemic is caused since 2015 and it is increasing with every passing. Unfortunately, it is not limited to adults but school-going children are also habitual of using this. It also caused unemployment and an economic downturn in society.

In DCS, most of the cases are also related to the opioid epidemic. It indeed comes under the responsibility of DCS to take of such cases, but the role of other substance abuse departments is also responsible for it. Instead of hiring people for the same purpose, the responsibilities must be divided so that better facilities can be provided (B, 2017 ). Here the role of “Department of Health and Human Services" is also important because all people are engaged in it regardless of gender and age. Furthermore, the services of "Indiana Department of Correction: Substance Abuse Treatment” can also be used for this purpose. This substance is easily available in pharmacies due to which people can buy it because it is legalized now.

Form the side of government, a ban should be imposed on Indiana pharmacies that without prescription, this substance will not be sold to anyone (B., 2018). The strict implementation of this rule will be mandatory. Its availability will not be limited to hospital pharmacies so that doctors of hospitals can only prescribe it on those cases where it is needed and without it, the treatment will not be possible. As per my recommendation, it should be replaced with any other medicine that will help in pain relief. As the ratio of people is increasing who uses it for an addictive purpose, it should be replaced with other pain relief medicine and managed by a medical professional.

The opioid epidemic must be handover to Indiana Department of Correction: Substance Abuse Treatment so that budgetary problems can be overcome and with the distribution of these services there will be less burden on DCS, and they can focus on other causes of child abuse and child neglect (Brown RE Jr, 2017).

Objectivity:

The ratio of child neglect reports in Indiana has been increasing with every passing day. It is not the stepmother or father or the foster family who put the child in such a critical situation, but the biological parents are continuously neglecting and abusing their children that sometimes lead to death as well (drugabuse.gov, 2019). There is the number of parents who are arrested every week because they threatened their children, which leads to death; some mentally torched their children that makes them sick. Here the root cause is the parents.

Sometimes the lack of integration in family, family misunderstanding, lack of bonding between the parents, and economic instability leads to create such a problem. But it is the primary concern of DCS they want to resolve it on a primary basis. This issue is also linked to child abuse. Child neglect and child abuse are interlinked with each other. If DCS focused on one, then the other will automatically be resolved (Russel, 2018). This problem can be solved by evaluating the causes of child neglect. From the number of cases that are reported in DCS, it can be analyzed what are the causes that children reported. By summarizing the cause, it can be analyzed whether it is related to economic instability, personal issues or society. Through this analyzed the root cause can be solved that will help in lower the causes of child neglect.

At this point, I want to highlight the role of educational institutes because they are the ones who are close to children, and as they are closer to children, they are better able to help the DCS to resolve this problem (EugeneFlango, 2015). The behavior of the child tells the children what he is going through when the worst situation occurs then the DCS rescue this child. Therefore, the teachers must be trained in this regard so that they can help the child to overcome the problem and such worst cases that lead them to death will not arise.

The DCS must hire some of the researchers that can identify the problem and conduct a study where the accurate problem can be identified then they design training sessions for parents and children that will educate them to overcome this problem. This can be done through schools to save the expense of these training programs. Furthermore, with the help of community centers, training will be given to those whose children are not school going, but they have been going through such problems (Swan, 2015). Whatever the problem is, whether it is related to child abuse and child neglect, it can only be solved if all people and governing and regulatory bodies work side by side with each other. Then the ultimate aim of DCS will be achieved.

Cost and benefit analysis:

Cost and benefit analysis of proposed solution number 1 of child abuse.

In this section, both macro and microeconomic factors are analyzed of how their role is important and what cost and benefit the DCS will gain from it.

At macro level, the role of government is important so the government of Indiana must announce a revised policy in which save the child from child abuse is not only the responsibility of DCS, but country-wise NGO play their role as for any NGO of the country they must work under DCS and follow their policy to reduce the number of child abuse. In this way, the employees of these NGOs will be used and additional employment that is required at DCS will be reduced (Emily Allchin, 2019). It leads to a decrease in the impact of financial constraints and the extra budget that they demanded to fulfill the purpose. When at the government level, it is announced that all the NGOs will work under DCS instructions, and an additional benefit will be given to them, then it will be beneficial for them to follow their instructions.

At the micro-level, there are unlimited benefits for DCS. First, their workforce problem will be reduced, and the amount that they require for the training of new employees is automatically reduced. Due to a new policy, they have enough trained staff that they can use to reduce cases of child abuse.

Cost and benefit analysis of the proposed solution for the opioid epidemic:

At the macro level, the role of regulatory authorities is important because they have to revise their strategies and duties that they assigned to the respective department. If two or three departments did the same job, and still there is no control over substance abuse them, there is no means of such departments. Hence, the regulatory authorities must revise the role of all departments that are concerned with substance abuse. The names of these departments are "Department of Health and Human Services” and “Indiana Department of Correction: Substance Abuse Treatment.” The role of these departments is to control substance abuse and DCS is doing the same things but they protect a child who is involved in it (Lilly, 2019). So, if these departments are doing for men and women and if they started it for children as well, then the cost that will be incurred will be less because they have all the facilities and experienced people who are doing this. If the same thing is done by DCS than they require new people who are experienced and qualified enough to support their purpose. So, they need finance to develop a new system that is costly because already they are over budget. Through this proposal, the extra cost will be reduced.

At the micro-level, this solution will remove extra burden over the department, and if two departments are already doing so, then assigning additional duty will be helpful for the organization to focus on other problems like child neglect and child abuse. If these two problems are under controlled than the substance abuse problem will automatically reduce. From the financial point of view, their amount of demanded budget will be reduced and expenses will be under control.

Cost and benefit analysis of the proposed solution for child neglect:

The cases of child neglect have been increased, and with the help of educational institutions, this problem can be overcome. At the macro level, if our children are not physically and mentally fit then our generations will be the effect that will disturb the whole economy. Therefore, it is better to resolve this problem at the grass-root level.

There is a lot of work that has to be done at the micro-level or organizational level to save the children. DCS must design a research team of 6 researchers that made a detailed report on child neglect cases, and after analyzing the problem at the school level training sessions for students and parents will be designed (Lilly, 2019). In this way, the students and parents will be able to overcome the problem. At these training or awareness programs, parents will be encouraged to share their problems. In this way, at a macro level, such an initiative will be taken that will ultimately help to overcome this problem. The expense that will be incurred will be in million but the benefits will help in overcoming the budgetary constraints of billion dollars.

Conclusion:

Concluding the findings of this paper in a nutshell, it is evaluated that if Department of Health and Human Services” and “Indiana Department of Correction: Substance Abuse Treatment” and NGO's work in collaboration with DCS than under the budget of all these departments that problems of child abuse, child neglect and opioid epidemic can be overcome. The role of government and regulatory authorities is also important unless and until they issue orders, DCS will not be able to control the rate of these cases. Therefore, at the macro and micro levels, the implementation of strategies is important.

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