US Slacking in Social Services?

[RCIAGraduate]

Hello, how have you been lately?

I’d like to ask your personal view on Social Services in the United States especially those in your state or local community and how U.S Social Services compare to those of other countries or nations.

By Social Services I don’t necessarily mean benefits like Social Insurance or Free Health Care per se but Programs like Foster Care and Child Welfare Systems, Publicly Funded Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Programs, Anti-Recidivism Programs like Re-Entry Initiatives for Criminal Offenders or Employment Services for Disadvantaged Individuals (i.e Job Programs under T.A.N.F) or Supports for the Disabled and Elderly.

Also, do you think any problems within social service systems here in the United States/State or local community is more of a funding problem, an administration or bureaucratic problem or a lack of attention/awareness from the community or public officials or a combination of such issues.

Thank you for your time.

 

[sunnyyy]

Where I live (Rhode Island), the welfare/food stamps system is completely trashed. It is WIDELY abused by people who are lazy, have no interest in working or looking for a job, and use their food stamps to buy cheap junk food which is incredibly unhealthy for their children. It is very difficult for new people to get on food stamps for the reason that all the government funding is being taken up by a large amount of people just milking the state for money.

This is not answering your question… but I think this problem could be largely corrected by drug testing, job interview offers, and random visitation from a welfare officer.

Of course this does not represent the entire population of welfare collectors. There are many hardworking families and single parents that need the extra help to get back on their feet after God dealt them a difficult round.

 

[RCIAGraduate]

Where do you get this view? Have you worked in Human Services before or do you know any Social Workers who observed this?

 

[sunnyyy]

Where do you get this view? Have you worked in Human Services before or do you know any Social Workers who observed this?

Our state releases the budget and overspending data every year over the news and in the papers to explain where the money is going and how it is being spent. It is a common problem here that the general public is aware of. In addition, I have relatives who have personally abused the welfare system themselves who said it was easy and caused them to lose their motivation to get back on their feet so long as they were receiving a monthly check without really having to do very much for it.

As far as the food issue I live near the cheapest grocery store in the area that accepts EBT and let me tell you… the 1st of the month is when welfare checks come in the mail and there is no going near that store. And I have shopped there during this time and the produce sections of the stores are empty.

It is pretty common knowledge here that the money in Rhode Island is being spent poorly on government programs. I am 90% sure that there is little to no follow-up or monitoring done on welfare collectors… as one of my cousins was smoking weed and drinking to excess during her time on welfare.

Again, I do understand that this does not represent everyone on welfare. It is just my opinion that the few people who abuse the system really taint it for everyone else.

 

[Selah_KY]

Hello, how have you been lately?

I’d like to ask your personal view on Social Services in the United States especially those in your state or local community and how U.S Social Services compare to those of other countries or nations.

By Social Services I don’t necessarily mean benefits like Social Insurance or Free Health Care per se but Programs like Foster Care and Child Welfare Systems, Publicly Funded Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Programs, Anti-Recidivism Programs like Re-Entry Initiatives for Criminal Offenders or Employment Services for Disadvantaged Individuals (i.e Job Programs under T.A.N.F) or Supports for the Disabled and Elderly.

Also, do you think any problems within social service systems here in the United States/State or local community is more of a funding problem, an administration or bureaucratic problem or a lack of attention/awareness from the community or public officials or a combination of such issues.

Thank you for your time.

There are so many problems…

The first person who responded to your post represents one problem. Unrealistic public perception of welfare recipients that is fueled by politicians. Lack of funding has been an issue since the 80s and I don’t see it getting better any time soon.

But the bloated bureaucracy is probably the one thing that should be changed, but is unlikely ever to be touched. Our system welfare system is SO inefficient! We have multiple agencies helping the same people, collecting the same information, and often even offering the same services. We could save so much by consolidating services under one roof, with one computer system, and reducing the need to have separate managers for each site. Not to mention it would give clients more time to spend at their jobs rather than waiting in line.

I think politicians and administrators making the rules are too far removed from what is actually happening on the ground. Not too mention, administrators are always going to fight for their own sacred cow when their livelihood depends on it. Then throw in that these same administrators and politicians are fighting over the scraps thrown at them, there is no incentive to work together.

It’s incredibly depressing to think about.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Hello, how have you been lately?

I’d like to ask your personal view on Social Services in the United States especially those in your state or local community and how U.S Social Services compare to those of other countries or nations.

By Social Services I don’t necessarily mean benefits like Social Insurance or Free Health Care per se but Programs like Foster Care and Child Welfare Systems, Publicly Funded Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Programs, Anti-Recidivism Programs like Re-Entry Initiatives for Criminal Offenders or Employment Services for Disadvantaged Individuals (i.e Job Programs under T.A.N.F) or Supports for the Disabled and Elderly.

Also, do you think any problems within social service systems here in the United States/State or local community is more of a funding problem, an administration or bureaucratic problem or a lack of attention/awareness from the community or public officials or a combination of such issues.

Thank you for your time.

Misinformation, and lack of funding plague social services in our nation.

Here in Michigan, if you do not have quality insurance your best bet for help with drug abuse or mental health issues is going to be the Department of Corrections.

For the poor, there are Bridge cards which is part of S.N.A.P. Michigan State Housing Development Authority handles section 8 type assistance. There is no mistaking section 8 housing in a community by the way.

Some half way houses are available for inmates attempting to reenter society. Our state recidivism rate is presently down to 29%. There is a movement a foot to ban questions about any criminal past on job applications. I’m not sure how I feel about that at this point. But it may actually help inmates stay out of prison. We’ll never be a correct, and forget society, and prison records are public records so…

I get kind of tired of people blaming a “bureaucracy” for failures. The truth of course is either professionals make the decisions or elected officials do. I think most people are smart enough to realize that most things are better handled by professionals.

ATB

 

[RCIAGraduate]

Misinformation, and lack of funding plague social services in our nation.

In respect to funding do you think that a renewed surge in Charitable Giving and Volunteerism could substantially cure what ails our Social Services? Or do you think there’s a necessary definite place for quality publicly funded Social Services?

Our state recidivism rate is presently down to 29%.

That’s great news. I always believe there’s an trend of promoting criminal justice reform(e.g. promoting the rehabilitation of prisoners) rather than solely enforcing “Tough of Crime” punishments.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

In respect to funding do you think that a renewed surge in Charitable Giving and Volunteerism could substantially cure what ails our Social Services? Or do you think there’s a necessary definite place for quality publicly funded Social Services?

That’s great news. I always believe there’s an trend of promoting criminal justice reform(e.g. promoting the rehabilitation of prisoners) rather than solely enforcing “Tough of Crime” punishments.

I think what is needed is both an increase in charitable giving, and public funding. It’s not just a lack of funds that causes what we are seeing. It’s what is in the hearts of the citizens. Both those who might give, and those who might take, need to “take” more responsibility.

ATB

 

[Zoltan_Cobalt]

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

–James Madison

With that in mind…if anyone can show me where the Federal Government is authorized to spend my tax money on welfare…please show me.

I understand that states’ constitutions may be different…but that is at the state level.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

–James Madison

With that in mind…if anyone can show me where the Federal Government is authorized to spend my tax money on welfare…please show me.

I understand that states’ constitutions may be different…but that is at the state level.

According to Article I section VIII constitution of the United states. They can do all kinds of stuff to make the world a better place. There is also something in there about dealing with malcontents, and trouble makers. Something to keep in mind.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;–And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Then this when the general welfare was challenged by soulless capitalists.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvering_v._Davis

"Congress may spend money in aid of the ‘general welfare’… There have been great statesmen in our history who have stood for other views… The line must still be drawn between one welfare and another, between particular and general. Where this shall be placed cannot be known through a formula in advance of the event… The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judgment. This is now familiar law… "

Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo

This should put your troubled mind to rest. Unless you somehow believe that the Federal Government has no vested interest in the poorer of it’s citizens being clothed, and fed.

ATB

 

[Ridgerunner]

I live in Southwest Missouri. In my opinion, the social services are pretty good. This is an extremely conservative part of the country, even of the state itself. Displaying my local prejudices full bore here, I think one of the reasons social services are pretty good is that locals tend to get hired to run them; people who have a low toleration for waste and fraud. I sometimes think the main thing wrong with social services in a lot of places is the nature of the people who are running them. If they believe in a reasonable degree of personal responsibility themselves, they tend to expect it of the clients.

Psych treatment is very, very good. It’s income-based and one of the pilot areas for “Healthcare Home”, a state project that provides NP care for health maintenance as well as psych care.

One difficult area that remains is that of permanently removing children from bad homes. In my opinion, at least, parental rights should be terminated more quickly than they are in homes that are really never going to improve.

There really isn’t, to my knowledge, any special program for former prisoners. But employment is so easy to come by, I don’t know that they need it.

 

[Zoltan_Cobalt]

According to Article I section VIII constitution of the United states. They can do all kinds of stuff to make the world a better place. There is also something in there about dealing with malcontents, and trouble makers. Something to keep in mind.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;–And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Then this when the general welfare was challenged by soulless capitalists.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvering_v._Davis

"Congress may spend money in aid of the 'general welfare’… There have been great statesmen in our history who have stood for other views… The line must still be drawn between one welfare and another, between particular and general. Where this shall be placed cannot be known through a formula in advance of the event… The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judgment. This is now familiar law… "

Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo

This should put your troubled mind to rest. Unless you somehow believe that the Federal Government has no vested interest in the poorer of it’s citizens being clothed, and fed.

ATB

Sorry Mickey…not convincing! I don’t see anything in Article I section VIII that gives congress the power to take money from one person and give it to another.

Remember the “general welfare” means "ALL Citizens"equally. Supporting one group or individual at the expense of others is NOT providing for the “general welfare”

This has nothing to do with Capitalists or any economic system. This has to do with a government overstepping it authority.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Sorry Mickey…not convincing! I don’t see anything in Article I section VIII that gives congress the power to take money from one person and give it to another.

Remember the “general welfare” means "ALL Citizens"equally. Supporting one group or individual at the expense of others is NOT providing for the “general welfare”

This has nothing to do with Capitalists or any economic system. This has to do with a government overstepping it authority.

Sorry Zoltan, that you are not convinced. Just remember to pay your taxes and everything will be OK.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

I live in Southwest Missouri. In my opinion, the social services are pretty good. This is an extremely conservative part of the country, even of the state itself. Displaying my local prejudices full bore here, I think one of the reasons social services are pretty good is that locals tend to get hired to run them; people who have a low toleration for waste and fraud. I sometimes think the main thing wrong with social services in a lot of places is the nature of the people who are running them. If they believe in a reasonable degree of personal responsibility themselves, they tend to expect it of the clients.

Psych treatment is very, very good. It’s income-based and one of the pilot areas for “Healthcare Home”, a state project that provides NP care for health maintenance as well as psych care.

One difficult area that remains is that of permanently removing children from bad homes. In my opinion, at least, parental rights should be terminated more quickly than they are in homes that are really never going to improve.

There really isn’t, to my knowledge, any special program for former prisoners. But employment is so easy to come by, I don’t know that they need it.

Missouri typically runs in the middle of the pack. Better for teens than adults but nothing to brag about. My own Michigan scores down towards the bottom, and this doesn’t surprise me. We are at the bottom these days in most things.

ATB

 

[Ridgerunner]

Missouri typically runs in the middle of the pack. Better for teens than adults but nothing to brag about. My own Michigan scores down towards the bottom, and this doesn’t surprise me. We are at the bottom these days in most things.

ATB

I can’t speak for the whole state, and didn’t. My suspicion, however, would be that social services in the KC area and in the City of St. Louis proper are overburdened, overpopulated by political people, and dealing with a lot worse social conditions than we deal with in the southwest part of the state. Look at Ferguson, and there are a lot worse places in the St. Louis metro area than Ferguson. A lot better too, though.

I would likewise think things are tougher to deal with in the bootheel and the south central part of the state. Lots of poverty in both places, not much in the way of employment either.

I don’t know much about Michigan, but my guess is that social services in Detroit are stretched awfully thin. But in, say, Sturgis or Kalamazoo? Probably a lot less so.

 

[Captain_America]

There are always going to be people who cheat and steal. This shouldn’t deter us from helping those who genuinely need help.

Do we give enough?

My sense is that it’s tough for me to know, unless I’m directly writing checks to a charity.

In modern times, the state has taken over the social services function first performed by the church. Can the church do as much, or as well?

Probably not, it has no power to tax everybody. Perhaps in the 21st century, the Catholic Church can lead in new areas of social services, not yet picked up by the state.

Mental health, for instance, is a weak spot.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

I can’t speak for the whole state, and didn’t. My suspicion, however, would be that social services in the KC area and in the City of St. Louis proper are overburdened, overpopulated by political people, and dealing with a lot worse social conditions than we deal with in the southwest part of the state. Look at Ferguson, and there are a lot worse places in the St. Louis metro area than Ferguson. A lot better too, though.

I would likewise think things are tougher to deal with in the bootheel and the south central part of the state. Lots of poverty in both places, not much in the way of employment either.

I don’t know much about Michigan, but my guess is that social services in Detroit are stretched awfully thin. But in, say, Sturgis or Kalamazoo? Probably a lot less so.

Run by the State, and poorly funded. We have as much poverty in out rural areas as we have in Detroit, and that is saying plenty. I think the Upper peninsula draws as much as the metro Detroit area per capita.

 

[Zoltan_Cobalt]

Sorry Zoltan, that you are not convinced. Just remember to pay your taxes and everything will be OK.

Taxes? What taxes?

I pay some very smart people to make sure I don’t pay taxes and stay out of jail.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Taxes? What taxes?

I pay some very smart people to make sure I don’t pay taxes and stay out of jail.

Where exactly are you located?

 

[kmkarbo]

My mother was on welfare for awhile after the divorce, I was ashamed. I had a child out of wedlock at 18 and received assistance. It is not much but I knew I could get something from the welfare office.
I wanted more so I went to college. I worked at a shelter for abused adults (usually women, but you know, we had to be inclusive) and their children, public and private substance use treatment facilities, a disability center, and private practice as a therapist.
The poor (financially) will always be with us, many of them are OK with their ‘position’ in life but they do not refuse handouts. If you receive money and have nothing productive to do ( most of the disabled and those on welfare) you will most definitely become addicted to something! Nearly everyone that I dealt with scammed the system. Most assistance programs were open ended with no expectations, i.e., you will be provided for, no questions asked.
Enabling is when we become responsible for others, it does not really help a person in need. Empowering is when we let others be responsible for themselves. Most of the agencies that I experienced had the enabling mindset. They seemed to feel good about themselves believing that they were helping rather than authentically helping those seeking assistance. Adults like to be responsible for themselves given the opportunity.