Week 7 Journal Entry

This week at my intern site I was only able to attend one day. My supervisor Lori had an
Investigative Team Meeting that she had called forth and needed to attend that morning so, I met
her at the departments Child Advocacy Center in Princess Anne. The purpose of the meeting
was to discuss three current cases that were being investigated through the department. There
was an officer from the Somerset Sheriffs department present during the case discussions as
well as, the case worker assigned to each case. There were three case types discussed in the
meeting that included; Neglect/abuse, Sex Abuse, and Physical abuse.
The Physical Abuse case involved a student at a local head start that had come home
crying and complaining of pain. It was found that the child had suffered a fractured collar
bone/fractured shoulder. The school was saying that the child has tantrums and the child had fell
out so that is what happened to him/her. The Sex abuse case involved a 16-year-old that was
having sexual relations with a teacher. It was consensual sex so the department suggested a one
party monitoring to see what the teacher would say about the situation. The Neglect/Abuse case
involved a man that was indicated for neglect. The female victim in the case was saying that he
hits her, calls her names, and has guns in the home but she knows not to bother them. She also
stated that the male smokes marijuana in the home.
Also a part of the meeting involved all the local police departments in Somerset, Life
crisis, and members of DSS who, discussed upcoming training opportunities and conferences.
Some of the training opportunities included; a CERT conference which was a 3-day training
being held from November 30-December 2, REID training on October 21-November 3, and MidAtlantic Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect which was being held November 16-November
18. Life Crisis discussed the Grant funding opportunities and how there were currently no funds

available. They informed the department that GOCAP had 14 grants and they all had been late
this year.
My supervisor discussed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each
department and advised each of them that the Crisfield Police department (CPD) was not being
cooperative when it came to them making appearances with the Social workers at homes in
dangerous atmospheres and a discussion was made on the rotation of cases between the different
law enforcement agencies. The department and Life Crisis stated their concerns about CPD not
really cooperating with DSS and how they have been trying to get them involved for 12 years.
In the conference, Lori discussed GOCAP and how GOCAP now mandated that in order
to receive funding from the state for child abuse investment, the facility must be a CAC. They
discussed the fact that the NCAC has a dedicated coordinator and a dedicated Family Advocate.
However, CAC uses the best practices and follows practices by not having a family advocate
and, they needed GOCAP to understand that that cant happen. The solution was that the
Somerset center could be a satellite center to a certified CAC in order to continue receiving
money. They suggested having Worcester County as a better fit for a satellite because they were
already accredited unlike Wicomico county. They departments overall concern was that they
may not be able to get funding from GOCAP unless they used a satellite center.
Overall, I can say that I did learn a few new things about the department and their
contacts. The responsibility of an Assistant Director is hectic from my experience shadowing my
supervisor. She has dealings with all types of agencies in the community and has a large
responsibility. I did ask my supervisor about the Ethical Code and Cultural Competency within
the department for my upcoming assignment, and if she had the codes present for me to look at
and she told me that the organization follows the NASW ethical code and for me to look that up.

I wasnt given much information about it but I did however look it up and found information on
the Ethical Standards for Human service professionals and Standards and Indicators for Cultural
Competence in Social Work experience.