Changes planned for the Iowa Department of Human Services could make reporting child abuse more efficient and more consistent and put it in line with recommendations made almost 10 years ago after a northwest Iowa girl was beaten to death.
The department this week announced plans to streamline the way it receives reports of suspected abuse of children and dependent adults. Under the planned system, expected to launch in July, all such reports would go through a single office in Des Moines. Currently, eight different groups handle those reports statewide.
A story in the World-Herald Tuesday incorrectly stated the effect of the reorganization on the Council Bluffs office.
The change could affect the Council Bluffs office slightly. The handful of employees there who work as intake specialists people who take reports of suspected abuse would no longer do that job in Council Bluffs. They would be eligible to apply for the same position in Des Moines or for other positions with the Department of Human Services, said department spokesman Roger Munns.
The changes are part of a previously announced reorganization of the department. Director Charles Krogmeier has said the number of DHS regional offices will be reduced from eight to five, and three administrative offices will be eliminated. Sioux City will lose its regional office, but the Council Bluffs office will stay open.
Also in July, Council Bluffs will gain a call center of 23 employees that will process Medicaid applications for people in or about to be admitted to nursing homes or other institutions. Currently, that work is handled by 40 people throughout the state.
The changes won't affect the toll-free number for reporting suspected abuse: 800-362-2178.
Moving to a centralized system has long been promoted by child advocates, and the department seems to have been moving in this direction for years.
Ten years ago, calls reporting suspected abuse were handled county by county. That was the case in January 2000, when Shelby Duis, a 2½-year-old Spirit Lake girl, was beaten to death.
“It was, really, one of the worst cases of malfeasance,” said Stephen Scott, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Iowa.
Several reports had been made to local Department of Human Services workers, although not all the calls were logged as reporting abuse, not all of the information was given to abuse investigators and some unqualified employees were doing work that should have been done by intake specialists, according to a report issued by Iowa Ombudsman William Angrick. Angrick recommended that the department move to a centralized system.
The department since stopped evaluating reports county by county, moving to the current system, in which abuse reports are accepted at eight regional offices, including Council Bluffs.
“The inconsistencies in the county-based system were largely squeezed out in the regional system, but it still makes sense to have one central group do this work,” said Munns.
In July, they will have achieved the centralized system recommended a decade ago.
“The director (Charles Krogmeier) decided it made more sense to have one place, one set of professionals who would do this work,” Munns said. “People who would get the same training, the same supervisors.”
Local officials still will follow up on any reports deemed worthy of investigation. Those are, Munns said, cases where the accusations detailed in a complaint would qualify as abuse under the law if proved true.
Last year, about 35,000 abuse complaints were logged by the Department of Human Services. About 25,000 of those were investigated, and about one-third of those cases were deemed abuse.
Contact the writer:
444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com
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