Tag: social work
-
A Book Update and Memoir-Adjacent Articles
My memoir Renegade Agency will be available for purchase on December 2, 2024. I’m unable to list the physical book for pre-order, but the Kindle version is available for pre-order now. Click here to pre-order the Kindle version. I toyed with the idea of adding QR codes in the text to link readers directly to…
-
Professionals Can Be Just as Dysfunctional as the People They Serve
When I describe people who misrepresented information and refused to take accountability in a child abuse investigation, you might assume I am describing the suspects. Instead, I’m describing the police officer and Child Protective Services (CPS) workers who investigated me when a child I provided care for was discovered to have a spiral fracture in…
-
Is Child Abuse Pediatrics Really a Specialty?
When my twin sons were five, my husband built a treehouse in our backyard complete with a trapdoor, porch, climbing wall, rope ladder, and zip line that sent the kids from the tree house porch across the yard to another tree. It was just as fun as it sounds. Not content to use the zip…
-
Who Controls the Narrative?
Being believed depends on who you are. “Who disagrees with this statement: I believe what a police officer says is true because a police officer said it.” I was in a jury pool fielding questions from a prosecutor designed to weed out the undesirables from the final twelve. I immediately disagreed with the statement he…
-
I Don’t Trust the Police and I’m Married to a Cop
In late 2013, I was investigated for child abuse by the police. I doubt anybody expects to find themselves in this position, but my surprise was magnified by my history. I had previously spent ten years employed as a child abuse investigator for the state and I’m married to a police officer, and so being investigated…
-
How Well Do We Serve the Most Vulnerable?
A case involving parents embroiled in a divorce-custody dispute sprang from the abyss one day and landed on my desk. Their conflict was so outrageous they had been reported to the child abuse hotline for it. Create an image of the worst divorce you’ve ever heard of and then multiply it by two. As a…
Andrea Verbanic 