Social Workers

The circumstances were pathetic almost beyond belief. The little girl's dried-out body was found in May, kneeling beside her bed in a West Philadelphia housing project apartment, apparently in the spot where she had died three months before. The girl's 22-year old mother has been charged with murder for allowing the child to starve to death. The death raised the question of whether others were to blame as well. Child welfare workers working for the city had been aware that Sylvia Smith had been the victim of child abuse prior to her death.

SO JILL Porter thinks locking up social workers is a good idea. Figures, since she has never had to go from crack house to crack house in search of a newborn child to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect. Figures, since neither she nor Judge Kevin Dougherty have ever had to trudge up a five-story tenement in the blazing summer heat to rescue an abandoned infant living in squalor and filth. Our city social workers are dedicated to the welfare of all children and go above and beyond the call of duty every day of their working lives, risking their own health and safety to secure the health and safety of the city's most vulnerable children.

I READ the articles commending the Philadelphia teacher of the year and the police officer who won the Fencl Award. I congratulate both. But where is the recognition for the Department of Human Services staff who work tirelessly to protect the city's most vulnerable citizens, the children of Philadelphia? Yes, we've gotten some negative press lately regarding child fatalities, but there's so much good that comes from this agency for children removed from unsafe situations, reunified with families made safer through services, permanent homes found for children where reunification isn't an option.

Department of Human Services social workers have two major complaints: "There's not enough workers, and there's not enough resources," says Ed Nowak, a shop steward of District Council 47, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. State inspectors who visited Human Services late last year confirmed that caseloads are high. The inspection, which came about a month after the city closed its file on 3-year-old Sylvia Smith, the West Philadelphia child found starved to death in May, revealed that one social worker was handling 95 cases - 65 more than state regulations permit.

Some 12,000 social workers in state Welfare Department offices and hospitals plan to walk off the job at midnight after rejecting a three-year contract offer last night that included a two-tier system of raises. RoscoeJohnson, president of Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union, also known as the Pennsylvania Social Services Union, said 2,000 union members in Philadelphia voted last night to strike when the contract expires tonight. A state spokesman said the state would try to keep hospital and Welfare offices open tomorrow with management personnel if the union walks out. "Obviously the commonwealth wants to resolve the differences and doesn't want any termination of services," said spokesman John Taylor.

Social workers not amused by 'Norm Show' He's maddened scores of fans who have walked out on his off-colored comedy routines, he's annoyed his former bosses at "Saturday Night Live," and now Norm Macdonald has even irritated a group of people who are ordinarily known for their empathy: social workers. In his new sitcom "The Norm Show," Macdonald's tax-evading character is told by a judge that he can go to jail, or perform community service by becoming a social worker. He chooses the second option.

A key component is seldom cited in the current school-reform discussions. As a social worker, I visited many public schools, including those at the bottom in student performance. I met regularly with teachers, principals, guidance counselors and school psychologists. I generally found students in classes, and teachers teaching. The hallways were quiet and the students well-behaved. I found educators to be very skilled - and completely overwhelmed. Without fail, teachers and administrators at each school expressed a similar wish - to have social workers relieve them of some of their burden.

Social workers are not miracle workers. No one feels worse than the social workers who handled the cases of 3-year-old Sylvia Smith, who starved to death at the hands of her mother, and of 2-year-old Malik Richard Barnhill, who died of abuse and neglect in a North Philadelphia rowhouse. Is it the social worker's fault these two children died? Mayor Goode says so. He said they "did not do all that they should have," and recommended that the workers and their supervisors be disciplined.

For Tracey Skolnick, the three days of intense training in Norristown amounted to a crash course in child-welfare issues - a sort of Real-Life Social Work 101. "When you first come (to the job), you don't know anything," said Skolnick, a case worker for Montgomery County's Office of Children and Youth for just 2 1/2 months. "It's overwhelming. " Now, she says, she will manage her eight cases with more confidence. And organizers of the state-mandated training hope she will have even more competence.

Department of Human Services social workers have two major complaints: "There's not enough workers, and there's not enough resources," says Ed Nowak, a shop steward of District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. State inspectors who visited Human Services late last year confirmed that caseloads are high. The inspection, which came about a month after the city closed its file on 3-year-old Sylvia Smith, the West Philadelphia child found starved to death in May, revealed that one social worker was handling 95 cases - 65 more than state regulations permit.

Leona Coren Ellick Kornfeld, 90, a Philadelphia social worker and advocate for those with AIDS and mental-health needs, died Saturday, March 23, of dementia and advanced age at Chandler Hall, a nursing home in Newtown, Bucks County. Before it was common, Mrs. Kornfeld made it her business to go into the community and look for those in need of help from society. She met with clients, figured out what services they were entitled to, and guided them through the application process. Clients included widows, elderly shut-ins, and those suffering from AIDS and mental illnesses, said her daughter, Carol Coren.

Charles Perry Gallun, 71, a social worker and victims' rights advocate who pioneered treatment for perpetrators of domestic violence, died Thursday at his home in Germantown. The cause was complications of lung cancer, according to his family. Mr. Gallun, who grew up in West Philadelphia and was known to his friends as "Chuck," worked for more than 30 years at Creative Health Services, a behavioral healthcare provider in Pottstown. Known for his sense of humor, Mr. Gallun liked to tell people he met his wife, Priscilla Becroft, in jail - they spotted each other at Holmesburg Prison, where they both worked for the Philadelphia Prisons System.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, March 3, for Rita S. Urwitz, 69, a former Philadelphia social worker and union leader, who died Sunday, Jan. 6, of complications from chemotherapy at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer in August, said her partner, Carol Reppert. Born in New York City, Mrs. Urwitz earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from La Salle University in 1975. She later earned a master's degree in social service from Bryn Mawr College.

Eula M. Cousins, 110, a pioneering black social worker and educator who lived to be one of the oldest Americans, died Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Cathedral Village retirement community in Philadelphia's Andorra section. Despite her age, Mrs. Cousins, an avid reader, remained sharp-minded and quick-witted, able to discuss any contemporary issue in detail. "She was one of the most dynamic individuals I have ever met," said Acel Moore, associate editor emeritus of The Inquirer, who was a longtime friend.

Two rescued from icy lake PHOENIX - A firefighter in a waterproof suit crossed a partially frozen Arizona lake to help rescue two teenagers who spent at least two hours hanging onto a dead tree after ice began to crack, authorities said Thursday. A third teen, who had stayed on the snow-covered bank of Fool Hollow Lake, called for help, authorities said. Emergency personnel retrieved the boys after firefighter Jack Gessner made his way across the lake with a rope attached to a boat carrying other rescuers.

What happens to those young children who are eyewitnesses to violence in their own home, whose stories are news for a while and then fade from view? One of those children is Markeytia Poindexter, now 24. On Thursday, she was one of the guests of honor at the dedication of the new Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center - and the only one to get a standing ovation. She was there to tell her story about how the staff at the old Youth Study Center along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where she was detained three or four times as she grew and got in trouble, helped her turn her life around.

AS I MADE plans to watch the third and final presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, I figured I'd end up writing a sly column about all I've learned from all these televised performances, including the Joe Biden and Paul Ryan hoedown. I'd analyze the candidates' facial contortions, the sizes of their flag pins and their stances at the podiums. Then I'd make a faux informed observation about how this stuff might impact those swingin' Ohio voters. I'd share how hearing Biden use the word "malarkey" pulled me down Memory Lane, because malarkey was one of my Irish mom's favorite words.

Mary Lambert Fosnocht, 77, a former director of social workers in Chester County, died Tuesday, Oct. 9, of cancer at her home in Hershey's Mill, the retirement community near West Chester. Mrs. Fosnocht was clinical director of outpatient services at Community Services for Human Growth in Paoli, in charge of 22 social workers from 1982 to 1993, her husband, Thomas, said. The firm's clients "could have been abused, could be divorced, lost their jobs, emotionally disturbed for any number of reasons," Thomas Fosnocht said.