Page Eight THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, May 22, 1955 Local Agencies for Children Evaluated: By RONA FRIEDMAN Family Service which is financed HOW EFFECTIVE are the exist- by the Community Chest. ing agencies and services in Family Service is doing a fine Ann Arbor that are trying to pre- job counseling parents and chil- vent and control delinquency? dren. Any family can seek help at Though there has been a tre- Family Service regardless of theirr mendous improvement in facili- ability to pay. Fees are based on ties during the past few years, the the weekly income of clients. fact that delinquency is increasing Family Service is severely lim- indicates that in some aspects the ited because they lack a sufficient existing facilities are inadequate. staff. The present staff is composed of three caseworkers and a part- The School. . . time consultant psychiatrist. It is UTSIDE of the home, the child the same staff that Family ServiceN spends most of his time in had in 1946. The number of fam- school. It is in school that a child's ilies served, however, have in- problems can be spotted and help- creased 72 percent since 1946. ed most easily before they become . serious. Pollee Department .. . In the Ann Arbor public schools, the facilities for treating and HE FIRST official agency that= counseling children have been ex- the delinquent child comes in panded, but there is still a need for contact with is the police depart- further development. ment. Police officers see more al- leged delinquent children than the There is one school psychologist personnel of any other agency., In the public school system. In the The manner in wsich a police elementary schools, there is a full- officer conducts himself with a time and part-time visiting teach- child may'have a very important er. There is one guidance counsel- e ect on the child's future atti- or in the junior high schools. Ann tude towards the law. Even more teacherrH School has a visiting important, for both the communi- selor for the girls a ty and the child,is the decision selo fo th gilsthe individual pfficer makes con- The preventive value of a strong cerning the child's future. visiting teacher and counseling A child may need mental aid or program is great. The lack of may need temporary or permanent enough money to expand the pres- r em orary oe en- ent facilities and the lack of per- removal from a harmful home en- sonnel to fill the positions is a manynmhildren ordeto prevent pattern that is not limited to the bitumany children from becoming ha- schools but applies to most of the linuend perhaps dangerous de- agencies dealing with children bens, t understanfacchimds throughout the State and Nation. b able to understand a child's needs. It is obvious that the po- F 'lice officer dealing with children amily Service * needs more than common sense Another important preventive to guide his decisions. agency in Ann Arbor is the local Sgt. George Simmons, head of Aid Necessary enjoyableK as a spring breeze the Youth Bureau in Ann Arbor (a relatively new addition to the police department), has taken sev- eral courses on juvenile delin- quents on his own initiative, Spe- cial training on how to handle and understand delinquents, however, should be a part of the basic train- ing course and not left to the initi- ative of the individual officer. Some Youth Bureaus throughout the country have incorporated special courses on delinquents into their basic training programs. The Youth Bureau received over 1000 complaints and dealt with over 1200 alleged delinquents dur- ing 1954. The staff consists of two police officers and a part-time secretary. In order to function more effectively and comply with national recommended standards, the staff should be increased to three or four officers, However, the Police Department should be commended for making the first large step towards deal- ing with juvenile delinquents more effectively - by establishing a Youth Bureau, Juvtenile Cougrt THE JUVENILE court is the sec- ond principal treatment agen- cy for juvenile offenders in Ann Arbor. Juvenile Court Judge Jay H. Payne is also Probate Judge. This means that besides serving children in Washtenaw County, f Judge Payne must also administer the estates of deceased persons, appoint guardians for minors and other legally disqualified persons, deal with petitions to commit the mentally ill, epileptic, feeblemind- ed and alcoholic to State hospi- tals, as well as other miscella- neous functions. As judge of the Juvenile Court, Judge Payne presided over 150 of- ficial cases concerning dependent and neglected children and 127 official delinquency cases during 1954. The Court is only able to de- vote two half-days a week to the hearing of juvenile cases. (The Ju- venile Court staff carries on the work of the Juvenile division be- tween Court sessions.) The office of Juvenile Court Judge in Washtenaw County is a full time job and should be made separate from the position of Pro- bate Judge. National standards recommended by the United States Children's Bureau and the Nation- al Probation and Parole Associa- tion, states that whenever pos- sible the Juvenile Court should be separate from other courts. The staff of the Juvenile Court which consists of four profession- al employees and two secretaries, is impossibly overburdened with work. The county agent, for example, besides being responsible for youths paroled from the State training schools, boarding - home applicants and adopting parents, must conduct the pre-hearing in- vestigations on the new depend- ent, neglected and delinquency cases. The Juvenile Court received 479 cases last year. The National Pro- bation and Parole Association has recommended that one worker should not conduct more than 14 pre-hearing investigations per V month. This means that the case load of the local county agent is three times the recommended number. For effective probation work, the worker must establish a close re- lationship with the child. Because the probation workers have huge case loads which are constantly in- creasing, they are unable to devote the necessary time to each case. The only 'solution' has been to fo- cus on the children that appear most likely to permanently benefit from probation guidance. A problem that Judge Payne faces in delinquency cases is the long delay in getting psychiatric appraisals on the children. "I would send, more to the Huron Yalley Guidance Clinic in Ypsi- lanti but it takes too long," he pointed out. "I can't wait two months for their appraisal When it is possible I send cases to them Or to the Children's Service in the Neuropsychiatric Institute. But if necessary I send children to d r A AGENCIES CAN HELP IN MANY ASPECTS OF FAMILY LIFE SAVE! DISCOUNTS AND SERVICE on APPLIANCES, RADIO. 6and TELEVISION SAVE! STEAM and DRY AUTOMATIC IRONS TOASTERS Regular Price $18.95 Regular Price $14.95 Our Price $12.60 Our Price $9.60 H. P. JOHNSONand Co. 209 S. Fourth Ave. NO 3-4124 SAVE! 2.95 to 4.95 Feel as light-hearted as the season itself in luxurious SouthwindO - Manhattan@-tailored of fine rayon challis. Look smart, too,I in Southwind's handsome collars andI fashion-right colors. Sail in today and choose a couple!_ TICE & WREN CAute3 /f 'rmen 1107 South University across from Ann Arbor Bank OPEN FRIDAY EVENINGS 'TIL 8:30