Foster Care Worker Pleads Guilty To Falsifying Records

A DCF subcontractor who lied multiple times about an at-risk toddler's whereabouts has pleaded guilty to falsifying and destroying records.
Cape Coral resident Denny Kern, 53, was sentenced to four years’ probation for the crime.

Kern was arrested in November after an Office of the Inspector General investigation determined he had falsified records. Kern was a case manager, required to make regular health and welfare checks on children under the supervision of the Department of Children and Families.
Kern is by no means the only child welfare worker to file fake paperwork. His was one of 25 cases involving falsification of case management records investigated in the past seven years; of those, 20 ended in employees being fired or quitting. There was one suspension and four cases that were unsubstantiated or had no action taken.
While working for Lutheran Services, which has a contract with Children’s Network, the private company that provides services to the state’s Department of Children and Families, Kern reported he’d visited the toddler girl in Cape Coral. Although Kern knew the child had been moved to West Palm Beach because her mother was in jail, he filed a log detailing visits to the child in March, April and May.
The falsified documents came to light only after Kern was fired in May 2015 for poor job performance. When Lutheran Services supervisor Gwen Doyle took over Kern's 38-child caseload, she started hearing from family members and caregivers that he hadn't been doing his job.
According to the investigative report, “When Mr. Kern visited (Caregiver 1’s) home, Mr. Kern would come to the door, have a blank piece of paper, and ask Caregiver 1 to sign it. Mr. Kern never came inside the home. ... He indicated that Mr. Kern was aware that Child 1 was not present in the home and did not need to see (her).”
In another case, Kern admitted another child he was supposed to visit regularly was sometimes "probably not" at home when he said she was, though "Kern believed 90 percent of the case notes were accurate and 10 percent of the case notes ... were false, but could not recall which case notes were false."

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2017/02/24/ex-dcf-subcontractor-pleads-guilty-falsifying-records/98302196/

Facebook Suicide: Antidepressants Doubled For Teen Before Hanging

A month before 14-yer-old Naika Venant hanged herself on Facebook Live while in foster care, a doctor doubled her dosage of anti-depressant, The Miami Herald reported.
The revelation again underscores the dangers of antidepressants on the developing minds of teenagers. Venant received Zoloft despite its critical “black box” warning that there was an increase in the risk of suicide in children. She took her own life on Jan. 22, lives streaming it on the social media site.
Venant was the second suicide of a child in foster care within a two-month span. Her family says the deaths are evidence of the failure of privatized foster care. Venant was in the care of contractor hired by the Department of Children & Families.

The Herald noted that Venant is at least the second child in state foster care to kill themselves after receiving antidepressants.

Florida Department of Children & Families Secretary Mike Carroll told the Herald that the agency doesn’t prescribe medications for children in its custody, only doctors do.

George Sheldon, a former DCF secretary, said Venant should not have been on a drug with a black box warning considering she had no consistent caregiver.

Attorney Howard Talenfeld, who represents Naika’s mother, told The Herald Zoloft  was risky considering Naika’s instability “You have to be very concerned,” Talenfeld said. “Naika went through 14 non-therapeutic foster homes, and she was being prescribed very powerful psychiatric medication. She could not possibly have been appropriately monitored.”

http://palmbeachhealthbeat.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2017/03/27/facebook-suicide-antidepressants-doubled-for-teen-before-hanging/