Problems With DHS Run Deep
Problems With DHS Run Deep
October 8, 2008
Circumstances at the state’s Division of Children and Family Services are apparently going to get worse before they get better.
On Monday, Pat Page, head of the division, turned in her letter of resignation, saying she wasn’t getting adequate support in her efforts to overhaul the department. She said the thought had crossed her mind to quit a year ago when she was unable to put together the team she thought necessary but “decided to make it work even with those obstacles.
“Now that we finally have assembled the team needed I have experienced a lack of support that makes it impossible for me to achieve the systemic change that was my goal (and yours too, I know),” she wrote in the letter to John Selig, director of DHS.
Page said the areas in which she felt a lack of support were in administrative, financial, staffing “and other.”
Even if things were going well in the division, the resignation would be worrisome, but that is far from the case. The foster care system has been watched closely following the deaths this year of four children who were under state custody. There also was the recent conviction of a northwest Arkansas man who was charged with sexually abusing foster children in his care, according to an Arkansas News Bureau story.
As for the problems in the department, Page told lawmakers last month that some DHS employees hadn’t done their jobs adequately in the case of Brian John Bergthold of Bella Vista. Bergthold pleaded guilty in mid-September to sexually assaulting two of his foster sons. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, which was added to the sentence of 70 years in federal prison he received for producing child pornography.
During her time at DHS, Page was able to replace all members of her division’s management team, but the changes she wanted the team to make may have been stymied at that point.
As spokesperson for DHS, Julie Munsell put it that Page may have become frustrated with a resistance to change by some in the department.
Gov. Mike Beebe said he didn’t ask Page to resign and that the foster care system had been going through a complete review before the deaths of the four children this summer.
Director Selig praised Page for the work she did, which amounted to 34 years in child welfare.
“She retires knowing that she made a real difference in thousands of lives,” adding that she created an environment where children were safe and loved.
It will now fall to Beebe to pick up the pieces. Yes, replacing Page will be an internal matter for the department to carry out.
But all of the problems that ran Page from the job will be there when the next person arrives unless the governor makes it
clear that such will not be tolerated on his watch.