COUNTY BOARD APRIL MEETING

Child Abuse Cases Rising,

Otsego County Reps Told

COOPERSTOWN – Bill Hayes, retired Bassett Hospital social worker and local coordinator of National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Otsego County, told the county board at its monthly meeting this morning that 41 more cases of child abuse were reported locally in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the first quarter last year.

Most of the cases are not life-threatening; they involve unnecessary physical abuse, neglect and poor judgment, he said.

One increasing category is drug-addicted mothers who deliver addicted babies at Bassett Hospital and then must go through detox.

Hayes also asked the county board to study increasing salaries in the county Social Services Department’s Children’s Services unit, where only two of the seven caseworkers have deep experience because others have been lured to surrounding counties by “substantially better” salaries.

Hayes, who appears before the county board every April, organizes the pinwheels displays – you can see them at Mount Vision Garden Center, Melinda’s Garden Barn in Richfield Springs, or Annuto’s in Oneonta – to make people stop and think about children.