The New Hampshire House is looking at a bill that would increase the state’s oversight of the wellbeing of children placed in group homes out-of-state, says New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR).
NHPR interviewed Cassandra Sanchez, a child advocate in N.H. regarding this bill. It is wonderful the state is looking into increasing oversight of facilities. It should be paramount that children in need of long-term care get the best resource at their disposal.
Sanchez had visited a group home in Tennessee where two N.H. children were being housed. In her interview, Sanchez described the facility as “horrifying.” Frankly, the only horrifying group house should be the house on The Bachelor, not one with children. However, the House bill aims to take care of that. In its oversight, it would make it easier for certifying agencies, such as the one Sanchez is employed by, to flag and follow up on issues.
This is probably the most important part of all of it. Resolving issues instead of letting things fester is incredibly important, especially serious issues. These are kids who are in a bad situation to begin with, for whatever reason, expanding on that pain or anguish with a miserable experience at a place which is supposed to help, is not right.
Just picture a bunch of kids being taken care of by Nurse Ratchet, makes you cringe does it not? If it does not, you should probably get that looked at mate.
Although expanding oversight to out-of-state facilities is important, yet it is merely a smaller part of this issue. More important of an issue is N.H. kids get shipped out-of-state because of a lack of resources, Sanchez said in her interview. We could resolve this issue as a whole by expanding social services at all levels here in N.H. There should be no need to send these kids all over creation to get services.
We are one of the wealthiest states in the nation and currently have the lowest poverty rate. The rich, and a few famous, use our state as their playground. I am sure that we can find the money somewhere to fund these services.
In close, it is great that government is looking into more protections for our most vulnerable children, whether they be here or out-of-state. However, as a state, we can most certainly do better. There are a plethora of options going forward, yet I am glad it appears they are taking a step in the right direction.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
