Maggie Bishop Director of the N.H. Destroyers of Children, Youth and Families

Articles full of bull!!!

It's difficult to find a pattern ...
www.cmonitor.com, 11 Feb 2009 [cached]
It's difficult to find a pattern between age and rates of child abuse among new parents, said Maggie Bishop, director of the Division for Children, Youth & Families. Increased parental stress is about the only consistent factor across the board, she said, and each abuse case is circumstantial.
"We're always concerned with young parents. Sometimes they're just not educated enough to know what they're doing could be harmful," said Bishop, who has worked about 30 years in the family service field. "The biggest issue that leads to some type of child abuse and neglect obviously is the stress. . . . If there is stress and lack of support, there's more likelihood for it."
DCYF data from 2006 to 2008 indicates a reverse trend statewide: Parents over the age of 31 had the highest founded rates of abuse and neglect, as ruled on by the department or court system. That could be because most people have kids - and more of them - later in life, Bishop said.
Abuse rates among men under the age of 18, however, were markedly higher compared to women in the same range. In 2008, for example, 65 men were found guilty of abuse or neglect compared with 15 women. In 2007, it was 55 men versus 13 women; in 2006, 48 to 10.
Bishop said young women typically have built-in support systems, such as family members, to help relieve the stress of parenting. Men tend to have less outside resources and spend less time with the child on average, Bishop said.
Overall, founded cases of abuse and neglect have climbed in the past three years: In 2006, there were 911. In 2008, there were 1,315. That's due to increased awareness and better education standards, Bishop said.
"People are paying attention more. As a society, we're much more informed about child abuse concerns," she said.


Concord Monitor Online - Concord, NH 03301
www.cmonitor.com, 20 Dec 2004 [cached]
"We have people who definitely have committed to spend time to work with children and get to know them," said Maggie Bishop, child protection administrator for the Division of Children, Youth and Families.
Both CASA and DCYF advocate for children, "but in our advocacy to work for kids, we also have a responsibility to work for families,"she said.


DCYF Director Maggie Bishop ...
www.nhpr.org, 19 Aug 2008 [cached]
DCYF Director Maggie Bishop says, to the best of her knowledge, no one ever issued any sort of ultimatum.
Bishop says, up until that day, the state had bent over backwards to accommodate Michelle.
She says her staff delayed a termination hearing multiple times.
T.5421:22 to look back now and say, did we do everything she could, to make sure she had an opportunity, yes.B/c termination of parental rights was already going to happen.And so we stopped it to give her this ... extension ... to have some kind of contact.
But, as a rule, Bishop says there's no place for hardball negotiating tactics when it comes to mediated adoptions.
...
DCYF's Maggie Bishop says her office is investigating the matter.
T.5419:07 clearly the efficacy of these agreements have to be upheld.And with that said we have been working with Michelle, took her information and are looking into her concerns to assure that indeed the agreements are being followed.And if they are not we will assist Michelle and any parent to work through the process to make sure these agreements are enforced.
Bishop says mediated adoptions aren't worth much if the parties don't do what they've promised to do.
Just as important, Bishop says a birth parent deserves a chance to consider a mediated adoptions without fear of losing the option altogether.
She says she believes in the program, and that it's helping families.
But she says that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.


WBZ-AM: New Hampshire News
www.wbz1030.com, 24 Nov 2004 [cached]
But, according to Maggie Bishop, child protection administrator at DCYF, everyone in New Hampshire is a mandated reporter and must report any suspected abuse or neglect.
Maggie Bishop, director of ...
www.theunionleader.com, 16 June 2008 [cached]
Maggie Bishop, director of the Division for Children, Youth and Families, said the state becomes involved in families when a child-abuse or neglect complaint is filed.DCYF investigates about 7,000 complaints a year and between 9 and 11 percent warrant opening a case, Bishop said.
Even when abuse or neglect complaints are founded, Bishop said, keeping families together is a priority, with DCYF providing services aimed at keeping the child in the home.When it's determined children can't be safe at home, they enter the foster care system.But even then, Bishop said, the goal remains to correct the behavior that led to the abuse or neglect complaint and reunify the family.
For children who can never go home safely, state law requires the division to work quickly to reach agreements with parents or work through the courts to terminate parental rights and find the children permanent homes, Bishop said.
"We don't want children growing up in the child welfare system," she said."They deserve to have families and commitment."
Finding parents
About 1,000 New Hampshire children are in foster placement at any given time.Most will go home, but about a quarter of them will be adopted, Bishop said.The average foster care stay is 2.4 years, but that is decreasing all the time, she added.
Currently there are 35 to 40 children at some stage of recruitment for adopted homes; some will appear in the Heart Gallery, Bishop said.
Bishop said the division has shifted staff and resources to help locate adoptive parents, create more partnerships in the community, and make adoptions easier.
DCYF now actively looks for family members, foster parents or other caregivers who might be interested in becoming adoptive parents.The state provides post-adoption services to help parents after the adoption is finalized and also provides subsidies for adopted children who need special services, as many do.
The efforts are paying off, Bishop said.Finalized adoptions from foster care have increased dramatically in a decade, from 45 in 1998 to 143 last year.
Raymond attorney Jorel Booker, a former DCYF social worker and longtime division watchdog, said he has noticed a dramatic shift under Bishop's leadership.
...
Bishop said there are different types of adoptions: the more common model in which birth parents have no contact with the child; and voluntary mediated adoptions in which birth parents meet with adoptive parents and a court-appointed mediator to work out a plan for contact with the child after the adoption.
Some of the latter may involve visits, while others may be limited to a letter and photo every year, based on what the mediator determines to be in the best interest of the child.
Bishop said DCYF is changing and she hopes its image changes, as well, so that someday people having trouble parenting will call the division to help prevent child abuse and neglect.While the division's job is to protect children, she said, the process of providing family services could be less adversarial.
"The key is to be open to better ways of doing things," she said.
...
Bishop said the division has made many changes over the years, including reducing caseloads for social workers.
"All we want is for kids to be safe," she said.

http://www.zoominfo.com/search#search/profile/person?personId=318904050&targetid=profile