Massachusetts
MASSACHUSETTS
Tony Felix
Data Analyst
Office of Management, Planning and Analysis
Massachusetts Department of Social Services
24 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 748-2356
(617) 261-7438 Fax
tfelix@state.ma.us
Item 2.2: "Medical Personnel" includes "Mental Health Personnel." "Other" includes out-of-state agencies.
Item 2.3: All investigations were completed in CY97. There were fewer investigations than reports referred for investigation because some of the investigations had more than one report.
Item 3.4: Victims who did not receive services include 4,281 for whom no services were required, 26 whose families could not be located, and 22 whose families were referred for voluntary services with outcomes unknown. Children for whom the report was unsubstantiated who did not receive services include 21,913 for whom no services were required, 1,178 whose families could not be located, and 631 whose families were referred for voluntary services with outcomes unknown.
Item 3.5: This number is an estimate.
Item 4.1: "Neglect or Deprivation of Necessities" includes medical neglect. "Other" includes congenital drug addiction (55) and failure to thrive (12). Children subjected to more than one type of maltreatment were counted in each type, and a child was counted for each substantiated abuse during the year, even if it was the same type.
Item 5.1: This number represents only those children from families known to DSS in one of these ways: (1) open case; (2) closed for 6 months or less at time of death; (3) being investigated at time of death; or (4) had a substantiated report within 6 months prior to death but case was not open.
Item 7.1: This FTE, estimated as of July 18, 1997, is based on the number needed to reach negotiated caseload standards (12:1). An investigator must complete 12 investigations per month. An assessment worker should have 12 assessments at any given time. The information system did not separate social workers by function.
Item 7.2: This FTE, estimated as of July 18, 1997, is based on the number needed to reach the standard of 75 screenings per worker per month.
