Street Roots • March 31 -April 6, 2017
News
Page 7
C A SA , from page 5
"1 hope you w ill look a! CASA,
not as an expense, but as a pur
chase for return on Investment.
And we're not ta lkin g about
widgets here; we're ta lkin g
about transform ation of lives."
an advocate.
Sen. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) signed on
as one of the bill’s 18 co-sponsors. “CASA is
one of the best things that kids in the foster
care system have going for them,” she said.
Fewer lawsuits?
DICK WITHNELL,
C H IL D W E L F A R E A D V O C A T E
When it comes to fixing Oregon’s flawed
child welfare system, car-lot owner turned
child welfare advocate Dick Withnell said
CASA is the “silver bullet.”
And he’s found some evidence to suggest
that when a foster child has a volunteer
advocate, it may put the state at a lower risk
of child welfare malpractice litigation.
Withnell said he began advocating for the
CASA program after reading about how two
foster children in Yamhill County were
starved nearly to death.
The Oregonian reported it was “at least
the third time since 2004, in cases involving
at least five children, that (a) youngster
placed in foster care by Oregon child welfare
workers ended up suffering from life-
threatening starvation.”
The case resulted in a $60 million lawsuit
filed against the Department of Human
Services in 2016 for overlooking red flags
and failing to stop the abuse.
Withnell hired the Salem law firm Kevin
L. Mannix PC to compile information
pertaining to the malpractice lawsuits for
child abuse brought against the state
between 2012 and mid-2016. He also wanted
to know whether any of the children in
volunteer advocate “involved.” Due to the
closed nature of child abuse cases, Street
Roots was unable to determine the nature of
the two volunteers’ involvement.
One might have been involved in the
starvation case that Withnell read about. It
was reported that an advocate was involved
in that case; however, they were assigned to
a sibling of one of the abused children who
was in a different home.
It was the advocate who had alerted the
state to the abuse, even though they were
not representing the abused children.
But regardless of their involvement, this
sample of cases indicates foster children
who have advocates may be less likely to
become plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against
the Department of Human Services - cases
that exposed the agency to more than $255
million in liability since 2012.
“I hope you will look at CASA, not as an
expense, but as a purchase for return on
investment,” Withnell told lawmakers at the
hearing. “And we’re not talking about
widgets here; we’re talking about
tra n sfo rm a tio n of lives.”
th o s e c a se s had a v o lu n te e r advocate.
The firm wrote in an informal report that
among the nine child abuse cases
(consolidated into eight) lodged against the
state that it was able to identify, Oregon was
“potentially exposed to $255,957,696 in
liability.”
Connor Harrington, the attorney who
took the lead on the project, emphasized
that the state didn’t actually pay out that
amount. But, he said, it could have because,
due to the nature of the cases, judges could
have awarded much greater damages.
According to Oregon’s office of Risk
Management, between January 2012 and
December 2016, the Department of Human
Services paid out $33.7 million in
settlements related to child abuse cases,
both litigated and un-litigated.
Finding out how many of the affected
children in these child abuse cases had an
advocate was not easy. There was no public
information to indicate that any did, and
among CASA staff interviewed for this
story, none knew of any lawsuit in the past
few years that involved a child who had an
advocate.
The Department of Human Services
initially denied Street Roots’ request for the
number of cases that involved an advocate,
but after we petitioned the Oregon Attorney
General’s Office, it agreed to give us a
number.-
Oregon Department of Human Services
said it was unable to identify any cases
other than the cases we provided them
with, which was the list of cases that the
law firm had compiled. Of those, a
Department of Human Services
spokesperson indicated two cases had a
While the exact monetary cost of not
funding CASA is unknown, the human cost
is.
Brittany Hope, a foster youth from
Washington County, gave heart-wrenching
testimony about her experience in the foster
care system, and how her advocate helped
her through it.
“She really did save me,” Hope told the
committee as her eyes filled with tears.
“While her title was only a ‘Court Appointed
Special Advocate,’ she was everything to
me. She was my support system, she was
my mentor, and she was my best friend.”
emily@streetroots. org
How do you share health?
At Health Share, we
believe good health is
more than what happens
inside your doctor's office.
Good health starts in your
community and includes
staying active, eating
healthy food and getting
regular check-ups.
Share your healthy habits
with family and friends. We
can all have better health
when we share it together.
health
Better health
together.
www.heatthshareoregon.org
le t