It is truly a sad day when we are back to defending the need to preserve quality mental health services for the children, who truly are the future of our country. Have we not seen enough travesties within our communities of children killing children and adults? Have we not seen enough child suicides and self mutilation cases? What will it take before we can realize that restricting services is not the answer? What will it take before people understand that saving a dollar is not more valuable than saving a persons life.

I myself worked for a local CSB many years ago. After several years of employment with this agency, I made a moral decision to leave, due to an enormous caseload that was assigned to me. I knew that I would not be able to provide quality case management services to the more than 50 + cases that had been assigned to me. I know all too well that CSB workers are given the daunting task of trying to provide quality services, while juggling unrealistic caseloads, which is impossible to do. With these situations you have children and families falling through the cracks on a consistent basis, which I saw all too often. Intensive In Home Services which have been a saving grace to families, have afforded children and their families the  opportunity to receive 24/7 service provision. Intensive In Home Service providers assist the family by continually assessing them and meeting all of their needs. This is where the term "case management" is most important. Despite this term being downplayed for the name sake of finances, case management services are an integral part of services, as it affords the worker the opportunity to link the families to additional services that are needed. In addition, the family can then be fully supported by other service providers as well. Without the addition of case management services, the families who are already at a disadvantage for numerous reasons, are left to receive watered down service provision. 

Please leave semantics out of the mental health world, as any true service provider is well aware, dealing with mental health is not a game and should not be plagued by irrational political decisions.  We owe it to the children and families of our communities, to continue to fight for them and provide great quality mental health services. Let Intensive In Home Services continue to provide case management services, in addition to all of the other services they provide, to help save our children and their families.