The Department of Children and Family Services plans to hire 50 nurses to make home visits to infants who were exposed to substance abuse by their mothers while pregnant. DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters said five years ago the department was ordered to come into compliance with follow-up visits for those infants.
“That was a huge burden on our workforce, and we are not nurses or substance abuse counselors. And so, we’ve been working towards a problem like this for a while,” said Walters.
DCFS came under fire after a two-year-old’s overdosed death from fentanyl and the agency received multiple warnings about the child and other child welfare incidents.
So far 11 nurses have been hired and 11 more are in the process of onboarding.
Walters said the purpose of nurse visits is to see that the mother understands how to protect their infant especially when drug abuse could cloud their judgment.
“Families are much more willing to talk openly and freely to medical professionals than they are to a social worker from the state that they fear may take their child,” said Walters.
And if a nurse encounters a visit where they sense the child is in danger, Walters said DCFS will act.
“If a nurse finds that she will come back we will go in and assess it and if we believe the nurse is right then we’ll reach out to a judge to get the order to remove the child and take the child into foster care,” said Walters.
Walters said she feels it will greatly improve a child’s welfare because people are more likely to be more honest with a nurse and their home life can be more accurately assessed.
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